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The people of Ukraine are expecting a papal visit, the leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church said in an interview.

Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk told the charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that Pope Francis could visit the Eastern European country despite the obstacles posed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Just as [the Pope] recently visited Iraq, just as he will be going to visit different countries in the world in spite of the difficulties presented by COVID, so Ukraine is expecting the Holy Father to visit, he said.

John Paul II was the first pope of the modern era to visit the country, which borders Moldova, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Belarus, and Russia.

In his arrival speech in Kyiv (Kiev) on June 23, 2001, he noted that two early popes were deported to present-day Ukraine.

He said: History has recorded the names of two Roman Pontiffs who, in the distant past, came this far: St. Clement I at the end of the first century and St. Martin I in the mid-seventh. They were deported to the Crimea, where they died as martyrs.

During the five-day visit, the Polish pope sought to reach out to Orthodox Christians, who represent roughly two-thirds of the population.

Pope Francis March 5-8 visit to Iraq was his first foreign trip since the pandemic broke out. On the flight back to Rome, he confirmed that he would visit Budapest, Hungary, on Sept. 12 for the closing Mass of the International Eucharistic Congress. He suggested that he might combine the trip with a visit to the Slovakian capital, Bratislava.

The 84-year-old pope told reporters that he had felt more tired during the Iraqi trip than on previous ones and did not know if his travel schedule would slow down in the future.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancelation of possible papal trips to Indonesia, East Timor, and Papua New Guinea in 2020, Francis kept up a busy travel schedule, making 32 international trips to 51 different countries in seven years.

Pope Francis has repeatedly appealed for peace in Ukraine, where Ukrainian and Russian forces have clashed in the east of the country since February 2014.

In his Regina Coeli address on April 18, he expressed alarm at a troop build-up on the border between the two countries.

I follow with great concern the events in some areas of eastern Ukraine, where violations of the ceasefire have multiplied in recent months, and I observe with great concern the increase in military activities, he said.

I strongly hope an increase in tensions will be avoided, and, on the contrary, that gestures be made that are capable of promoting mutual trust and fostering reconciliation and peace, which are so much needed and so much desired.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said last week that the Vatican would be the ideal place for peace talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In the ACN interview, Shevchuk said he was grateful for Pope Francis prayers for Ukraine. He noted that the Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal had invited the pope to the visit country during a March 25 audience at the Vatican.

The 50-year-old major archbishop said that the meeting was well received in Ukraine.

It was also a good sign that the relationship between the state of Ukraine and the Holy See would offer a means not only of preventing any form of escalation in the conflict in Ukraine, but also of learning how to foster dialogue and reconciliation, he said.

Shevchuk has led the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church -- the largest of the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with Rome -- since 2011.

He told ACN, which provides the Church with critical financial support, that the pandemic had imposed severe restrictions on pastoral outreach.

The country, which has a population of 44 million people, has recorded more than two million COVID-19 infections and 46,601 related deaths as of May 3, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

Many of us have started to broadcast our divine services online to give our parishioners the opportunity to participate in Holy Mass and Sunday Mass online, Shevchuk said.

He added that the situation reminded him of the Soviet era.

At that time, the only way to receive some kind of spiritual support was to listen to Vatican Radio. It is almost exactly the same situation all over again, he explained.

He continued: We can pray, we can preach online, we can even meditate on Holy Scripture online. But we cannot administer the sacraments online. And that is a major source of suffering at the moment.

Ukrainian Greek Catholics, who follow the Julian calendar, marked Easter Sunday on May 2.

In his Easter greeting, Shevchuk said: I greet all Christians who celebrate this great holiday today, and especially the sons and daughters of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine and in the settlements.

Wherever the Ukrainian heart beats, let the Easter singing be joyfully heard today. I wish you all a happy Easter.

I wish you a delicious Easter egg, merry hayivky [Easter songs], heavenly peace and joy that come to us today through the locked doors of quarantines and lockdowns. They come to revive hope in our human hearts. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

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Major archbishop: 'Ukraine is expecting the Holy Father to visit' - Catholic Sentinel

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba says that there are no specific deadlines for Ukraine's accession to the EU and NATO and it is only a matter of time.

"I can safely say that the issue of our membership in the EU and NATO is a matter of time. But we should not set any targets for ourselves, not to be disappointed in a failure to reach them yet again," Kuleba said in an interview with Radio Liberty.

In this context, he stated that no deadlines existed.

"No one in any country has ever said that [Ukraine] will join [EU and NATO] by such a date. They have always said, you have to do this and that, then you will join. Let's be realistic. There are countries in the EU that are skeptical about Ukraines membership prospect because they think that we are too big, we will be too competitive as the EU members. And because they still see the picture of Eastern Europe through the prism of the influence of the Russian Federation," the minister noted.

He added that a few years ago there were more such countries than now. And Ukrainian diplomats will work with the remaining ones.

As reported, Ukraine's strategic course towards full membership in NATO is enshrined in the Constitution.

On April 6, during a conversation with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, President Volodymyr Zelensky called the NATO Membership Action Plan the most pressing issue for Kyiv and a real signal for Russia.

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FM Kuleba: Ukraine's membership in EU and NATO is matter of time - Ukrinform. Ukraine and world news

For sure Im disappointed, but Im the kind of person player who knows you can't change anything once it's happened. We have World Cup qualifiers happening this fall, so the focus is on restarting, improving and fixing our mistakes.

"Obviously there were mistakes on our part that we need to put right, and we need to work on how we can take our game to the next level, how we can compete. You have to move on but its hard for sure. Personally, it was also upsetting, as it feels like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and youre not sure when the next one will come. Still, you have to put it behind you and just keep moving on and see what you can do next.

The words are those of Nicole Kozlova, who was reflecting on Ukraine's agonising failure to reach the UEFA Womens EURO in an interview with FIFA.com. In their play-off last month, the eastern Europeans lost 4-1 on aggregate to Northern Ireland, ending their hopes of a second EURO appearance after their 2009 debut.

But, as the old adage goes, when one door shuts, another one opens. And just last Friday, the European qualifying draw for the FIFA Women's World Cup Australia/New Zealand 2023 unfolded, placing Ukraine in Group B alongside Spain, Scotland, Hungary and the Faroe Islands.

"At first glance you think: wow, thats a tough group," Kozlova said. "For example, Ive never played against Spain or Hungary, although we have faced Scotland a few times, so its a mix of new and challenging teams.

"But in football, anyone can win on their day. You see it more and more and in the mens game as well. The gap has narrowed, which proves that anybody can beat anybody.

"I think if we have the right mentality, set up well and everyone does all they can, then we have a chance. You can never say we dont have a chance. We have to give everything and make the best out of it so that hopefully well get another once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

In 31st place on the FIFA/Coca-Cola Women's World Ranking, Ukraine may not be the favourites to win the group, but the 20-year-old is banking on the collective strength of a team renowned for its passion and fighting spirit under coach Nataliia Zinchenko.

"Anytime theres a game on TV, we watch it together and learn more about the game," said Kozlova. "We all read books about this and that coach, their tactics and so on. I just love seeing that passion. We always put up a fight and, while we may not be the most technically gifted side, we really battle. Thats who we are and you kind of have to embrace that fact. But as long as we have that attitude, well get the results."

Kozlova brings unique experience to the team, albeit more in terms of physicality than mentality. Toronto-born and raised, the striker currently plays for Virginia Tech in the USA and has benefitted from a particular type of training there.

"Over here theyre very focused on the athletic side especially the college teams," she said. "You come in and its fitness test after fitness test. Its really based on the pace of the game. Just look at the US womens national team. They maintain a high press for the full 90 minutes, but that takes a special level of fitness.

"Thats what I bring when I join up for training camps my best form and condition as well as an intensity and pace of play. Attitude-wise, its a game of football and its kind of the same everywhere the passion and love for the game, even if you might look at the game a bit differently.

"But honestly, I dont think that I bring anything that different. Everybody has their own skills, which is why its the most popular sport in the world. Everybody can play; indeed everybody does play, and differently."

Kozlova, who made her international debut in 2019, is also aware that she is benefiting from the opportunities offered to her by Canada and the USA. In Ukraine, those kinds of opportunities are still limited for young girls, even if women's football is slowly moving in the right direction.

"Were just trying to grow its popularity," she said. "The base is not going to grow if you don't have a lot of young girls playing. The number of girls that stick with the game is small even here in Canada. Among the girls I played with when I was 14, 15, some of them have left and maybe four or five of us are still serious about the sport. Even with a big pool of players, its getting smaller and smaller.

"In Ukraine you really need that base, but they dont really have it at the moment. But thats changing. They recently made it obligatory for professional mens teams to have a womens team as well, so it is slowly changing."

That initiative will surely pay dividends in the long term, something Kozlova also has one eye on with her studies, having majored in computational modelling and data analysis, and minored in mathematics.

"Ive always been a kind of analyst," she said. "Its always made sense to me and I often joke about it on the pitch. If theres a free-kick Im like: I need to hit from this angle for it to end up in the corner. Of course, Im just kidding around and not actually calculating it.

"For sure, though, Ive always paid attention to numbers, even if I havent really applied it to my game yet. Id like to use my degree to become a football analyst, as I find analysing different tactics and things like percentage stats and shots on goal all very interesting."

And who knows, perhaps Kozlova will continue to be involved in Ukrainian women's football after she hangs up her boots and use her expertise to help further its development.

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Kozlova and the magic of numbers - FIFA.com

Mr. Price added that the foreign ministers would also address the coronavirus pandemic and climate change, as well as issues including human rights, food security and gender equality.

Joining the ministers from the Group of 7 countries the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada in London will be representatives from Australia, India, South Africa, South Korea and Brunei.

Their attendance reflects a growing interest on the part of western nations to collaborate more closely with fellow democracies around the world as part of the broader competition with China and other countries exporting authoritarian values, including Russia.

Officials from those nations will join ones from the Group of 7 for a discussion on Wednesday about open societies, including media freedom and combating disinformation, Ms. Barks-Ruggles added. Samantha Power, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, will join sessions on how to ensure a sustainable recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

During his stay in London from Monday to Wednesday, Mr. Blinken will meet with Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain and his foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, and take part in a wreath-laying ceremony at St. Pauls Cathedral honoring soldiers killed in World War II.

Even as Biden administration officials have stressed their support for Ukraines government, they have also pressured Kyiv to complete reforms within the countrys notoriously corrupt political system. The State Department said that would be a priority for Mr. Blinken, and that progress in that area is key to securing Ukraines democratic institutions, economic prosperity and Euro-Atlantic future.

Briefing reporters on Thursday, Mr. Price said that the United States was deeply concerned by a recent move by Ukrainian cabinet ministers to replace the management of the countrys leading energy company, Naftogaz. Mr. Price called the actions just the latest example of ignoring best practices and putting Ukraines hard-fought economic progress at risk.

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Blinken Will Visit Ukraine in Show of Support Against Russia - The New York Times

A general view of the deserted town of Pripyat, some 3 kilometers (1.86 miles) from the Chernobyl ... [+] nuclear power plant in Ukraine, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

May 1 was one of the biggest holidays in the Soviet calendarthe worker's festival. In 1986, celebrations across the Soviet Union were overshadowed by what had happened just days before: the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The Soviet leadership's unsure response was to cost lives and, arguably, hasten the end of the USSR itself.

On the night of 25-26 April, there was an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power station, in what was then the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, one of the 15 constituent republics of the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). The explosion released large amounts of deadly radioactive material that then dispersed far beyond the disaster zone itself.

The Kremlin Tried To Cover Up Chernobyl Disaster

The Soviet authorities initially attempted to cover up the catastrophe. It was not until April 27 that the 30,000 inhabitants of the nearby town of Pripyat were moved from their homes. But the scale of the danger was such that it could not be kept quiet. Within days, unusually and worryingly high levels of radiation had been detected in Scandinavia. The secret could be kept no more.

The Kremlin tried still to remain silentbut their efforts were in vain. On April 29, the London Times front pageciting reports from Stockholm, Swedenwarned of a "Huge nuclear leak At Soviet plant."

Western correspondents in Moscow soon realized what was unfolding beyond the confines of the Soviet capital. The Soviet authorities had to respondhowever reluctantly. "They were deliberately trying to obscure what was going on," Philip Taubman, then in Moscow as a correspondent for the New York Times, told me in an interview for my book, Assignment Moscow: Reporting on Russia from Lenin to Putin.

In fact the Soviet leadership was now caught in a trap at least partly of its own making. Under the reform programmeknown as "perestroika", or "reconstruction"that had been launched by Mikhail Gorbachev when he had become Soviet leader the previous year, journalists were encouraged to be frank about the shortcomings of the planned communist economy.

"Angry At The Lack Of Candor"

This extended to questioning official statements in a way that was unprecedented in a society where the Communist party controlled the media. Taubman remembered a news conference on Chernobyl as one of the first times he saw Soviet reporters "angry at the lack of candor" in official statements.

FILE - In this photo taken May 1, 1986 in Ukraine's capital Kiev, people rally to celebrate the May ... [+] Day a few days after the deadly explosion on the 4th unit in Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (AP Photo)

May Day Parades Go Ahead

With hindsight, one of the most troubling aspects of the initial cover up was the Moscow authorities insistence that the May Day parades in Kyiv go ahead as normalto try to convince people that nothing was wrong. Those celebrating the holiday in the streets put themselves at risk from radiation.

But this kind of callousness had a price. It undermined confidence in the authorities' ability to lead. One of the most striking subsequent accounts of the disaster can be found in the numerous interviews conducted by the Nobel prize-winning author Svetlana Alexievich for her book, Chernobyl Prayer (also translated as Voices from Chernobyl).

Alexievich's work was one of the sources used by creators of the HBO series about the disaster, Chernobyl. "It really impressed me," the author said of the TV dramatization in a 2019 interview with RFE/RL.

ProtestAnd The End Of The Soviet System

"Chernobyl unleashed a mass protest movement against the authorities," wrote the Harvard historian, Serhii Plokhy, in his 2014 book, The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union.

The Soviet Union itself collapsed in 1991. The explosion in the reactor was a crack in the USSR that not only cost countless livesthe nature and delayed effects of radiation mean that the true death toll may never be knownbut also contributed to the demise of a political system.

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How The Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster Shaped Russia And Ukraines Modern History - Forbes