Vatican City • Pope Francis will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Vatican next month, a day before Catholic leaders from Ukraine gather at the Holy See to discuss the continuing conflict there and the fallout from the schism between the Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox churches.
The Vatican confirmed the July 4 audience Thursday. It will be the third meeting between Francis and Putin.
Francis and Moscow Patriarch Kirill sat down for talks in 2016 in the first meeting of the heads of both churches in a century. That summit, in Cuba, was seen as a possible step toward a papal visit to Russia.