Italy’s Meloni confirms support to Kyiv in Ukraine visit

ROME

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Tuesday pledged firm and continued support to Kyiv after holding talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Meloni made her first visit to Ukraine since she took office last October, just ahead of the first anniversary of the start of the Ukrainian-Russian conflict on Feb. 24.

During a joint press conference with Zelenskyy, the Italian premier stressed that “Italy won’t hesitate” over its support for the war-torn country, trying to address worries that divisions within her right-wing ruling coalition could change the Italian position.

Meloni’s comment came a week after her ally, former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, said that, if he was still heading the Italian government, he would not meet Zelenskyy, blaming him for the start of the war with Russia.

Berlusconi, who’s a long-time friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, claimed that if the Ukrainian president had “stopped attacking the two autonomous republics of the Donbass,” the war would have never happened.

Responding sharply to journalists’ questions, Zelenskyy said he believed that “Berlusconi’s house had never been bombed, tanks never entered his garden and nobody ever killed his relatives.”

Meloni tried to soothe concerns on the unity of her government, ensuring that it was firmly behind Ukraine, as it proved when it voted in parliament in favor of military and humanitarian support to Kyiv.

“Italy will provide any possible assistance with the aim of creating the conditions for a negotiation,” Meloni said. “Until then, it will ensure any possible military, financial and civil support to Ukraine.”