KIEV (Sputnik) — President Poroshnko said Friday he had invited Pope Francis to visit Ukraine at any convenient time.
Запросив Папу Римського Франциска відвідати Україну. Ми будемо щиро раді вітати Його Святість на українській землі
— Петро Порошенко (@poroshenko) 17 June 2016
"I would like to empathize that we will be sincerely pleased to welcome His Holiness in Ukraine," Poroshenko said at a joint news conference with Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
The Ukrainian president said that Vatican may join humanitarian missions aimed at release of Ukrainian prisoners in Donbas.
"We agreed to coordinate our actions on involving the Holy See in humanitarian missions aimed at releasing hostages who are in captivity," Poroshenko said.
Poroshenko also asked Vatican to support Ukraine in the process of visa liberalization with the European Union.
"I asked the Holy See to pay a special attention to getting visa-free regime with the EU member states for Ukrainian citizens in the context of international support of Ukraine," the president said.
In December 2015, the European Commission gave a positive assessment of Ukraine successfully meeting all benchmark requirements necessary for the liberalization of the visa regime with the Schengen zone.
In April, the Commission made a proposal to the European Council and the European Parliament to add Ukraine to the list of countries the citizens of which could travel to the Schengen Area without visas. No decisions on the issue have been made by any of the EU bodies so far.
