Pope Leo has made the Vatican available as a site for peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia . The newly elected pope took this action to assist with resolving the 'extremely challenging and dire circumstances'. A representative of the head of the Catholic Church expressed hope that they might offer an 'opportunity for peace.' His Holiness’s offer yesterday came as Russia and Ukraine each agreed to release 1,000 prisoners before the negotiations in Istanbul appeared to break down after an hour and a half. No headway was achieved regarding a truce during these being the initial face-to-face discussions between the conflicting sides in three years. In the afternoon, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin stated that Pope Leo XIV plans to ultimately propose the use of the Vatican and the Holy See as a neutral venue for a direct meeting between the two parties involved. He stated, "This is unfortunate because we had envisioned i...