Putin to meet Pope Francis in July

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Pope Francis next month, the Vatican said on Thursday, an encounter that could help pave the way for a historic papal trip to Russia.

"The Holy Father will receive the president of the Russian Federation...this upcoming July 4," Holy See interim spokesman Alessandro Gisotti said in a statement on June 6.

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the planning for the visit has already started.

"Preparations for Putin’s visit and contacts in Rome are underway, an audience with the pope is planned during this trip... we will make a statement concerning the details in due course," Peskov said.

Francis has already met Putin twice, in 2013 and 2015.

At their last meeting in 2015, the pope urged Putin to make a "sincere and great effort" to achieve peace in Ukraine and help bring an end to fighting between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatist rebels.

Ukraine remains a difficult issue in relations between the Vatican and Russia.

Putin has aligned himself closely with the Russian Orthodox Church and has accused the government in Kiev of flagrantly meddling in the life of Orthodoxy in Ukraine, a former Soviet republic where a new national church has broken away from Moscow's orbit.

Fighting between government forces and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine has killed some 13,000 people since April 2014, shortly after Russia seized control of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.

In 2009, Russia and the Vatican re-established full diplomatic ties which had been severed during Soviet times.

Putin previously met the now-retired Pope Benedict XVI as well as late pontiff John Paul II.0