AKIPRESS.COM - Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk is to meet Pope Francis on Saturday amid tensions with pro-Russian militants in eastern Ukraine, the Vatican said.

Yatsenyuk will be one of dozens of world leaders attending a ceremony on Sunday that will confer sainthood on popes John Paul II and John XXIII.

Ukraine's Christian believers are divided between Orthodox followers of the Kiev and Moscow patriarchates and a minority, mainly in western Ukraine, of Greek Catholics who recognise the authority of the Vatican, Global Post reported.

Vatican has faced some criticism over its low-key reaction to the spiralling crisis in Ukraine.

Francis on Easter Sunday urged the international community to "prevent violence" in Ukraine after a gunfight threatened to unravel an accord struck in Geneva last week aimed at reducing tensions.