Vatican City: The leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk gave Pope Francis a fragment of a Russian mine that destroyed the façade of the Ukrainian Catholic church building in the town of Irpin, near Kyiv, in March.

'It is a very symbolic gift, not only because Irpin was one of the first ‘martyr towns’ affected by the Russian aggression against Ukraine, but also because similar pieces of landmines are extracted from the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers, civilians and children, a visible sign of the destruction and death that war brings every day'- the archbishop’s office said.

Major Archbishop Shevchuk is in Rome this week to speak with Pope Francis and members of the Roman Curia about the war in Ukraine. It is his first time leaving Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24.

During their private meeting on Nov. 7, the 52-year-old Archbishop gave Pope a fragment of a mine that destroyed the front of a Ukrainian Greek Catholic church in the town of Irpin, outside Kyiv.

Major Archbishop Shevchuk began his week in Rome by presiding at the Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral of Sts Sergius and Bacchus of the Ukrainians in Rome on Sunday.

During his meeting with Archbishop Shevchuk on Monday, Pope Francis reiterated his closeness to the Ukrainian people in prayer and action. He encouraged the Ukrainian Catholic leader and his fellow bishops to carry out “an evangelical service of closeness to the suffering people,” the archbishop’s press release said.

The pope also said the Holy See is committed to promoting an end to aggression, the arrival of a just peace, and solidarity and support for the Ukrainian people.

The release said Shevchuk told Francis the war in Ukraine “is a colonial war, and the peace proposals coming from Russia are colonial peace proposals.”

“These proposals imply the denial of the existence of the Ukrainian people, their history, culture and even the Church,” the archbishop said. “It is the denial of the very right to the existence of the Ukrainian state, which is recognized by the international community with its sovereignty and territorial integrity. On this basis, the proposals of Russia lack a subject of dialogue.”

Returning to the Vatican from Bahrain on Nov. 6, Pope Francis told reporters traveling with him that the Vatican is “constantly attentive” to what is happening in Ukraine and that the Secretariat of State continues to do what is possible and has worked behind the scenes to help arrange prisoner exchanges.

Recent power outages are affecting approximately 4.5 million Ukrainians after Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky, CNN reported.

The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Nov. 7 that conservative estimates count 16,462 civilian casualties in Ukraine since Feb. 24, with more than 6,400 civilians killed, including 1,731 women and 403 adolescents and children.