John Phillips

 VATICAN CITY – Pope Leo spoke on the telephone with Russian President Vladimir Putin Friday and “expressed his deep concern about the grave humanitarian situation” in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian town of Oleshky, where thousands of citizens are starving, and called for a cease-fire there, the Vatican said Friday.

 The pontiff spoke to Putin from his hospital bed in Rome as he was recuperating from an operation for lung cancer he underwent earlier this week.

 “Today, His Holiness Pope Leo XIV spoke by telephone with His Excellency Mr Vladimir

16 Oct 2026
John Phillips

 ROME – Members of the Ukrainian community staged a rally outside the Eternal City headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization demanding that the UN hunger-fighting agency take action to save inhabitants of the Ukrainian town of Oleshko who face starvation due to Russian occupation.

14 Oct 2026
Bohumil Petrík

 NITRA. Slovakia -- A version of Macbeth produced in war-torn Ukraine received tumultuous applause when performed  at a festival hit by a funding crisis in neighboring Slovakia whose Government is considered less friendly than its EU partners. A warning about what might come after eventual victory over Russia was the main theme of the adaptation of the Shakespeare classic directed by famous Ukrainian theatre director Ivan Uryvskyi by the Ivan Franko National Academic Drama Theatre from Kyiv, critics said.

1 Oct 2026
John Phillips

 ODESA -- A journalist editing one of Ukraine’s crusading English-language newspapers has come under pressure from both the country’s intelligence service and his Embassy in Kyiv after he co-founded an international campaign for tolerance and multi-cultural dialogue to prevail in this war-torn Black Sea port.

28 Sep 2026