Pope donates four ambulances to Ukraine front lines

Pope Francis is donating four ambulances to Ukraine to be used on the front lines of the war with Russia, the Vatican said Monday. 

Since Moscow invaded its neighbour in February 2022, the pope has donated three ambulances, a hospital van and ultrasound machines for hospitals targeted by military strikes, as well as generators, food and medicine.

"The Holy Father has decided once again to send his almoner to Ukraine to offer four ambulances, equipped with all medical equipment necessary to save human lives, which will be intended for war zones," the Vatican said in a statement. 

Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner, is the head of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity. 

The ambulances will carry the coat of arms of the Vatican. 

"In this time of Easter rebirth, the pope wanted to make a gesture of closeness in one of the most painful places where the war has been raging for three years, the martyred Ukraine," read the Vatican statement.

Despite his repeated pleas for an end of the war, the Argentine pope has been ineffective in securing a ceasefire. But the Vatican has played a role in bringing about prisoner exchanges between Kyiv and Moscow.

Francis, 88, has been convalescing at the Vatican since being released from a Rome hospital on 23 March following five weeks of treatment for pneumonia.