Italy seems inclined to support Trump in his desire to end the war quickly, even at Ukraine's expense.
During a meeting in Rome earlier this week, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni spent an hour and a half persuading Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to agree to painful concessions for the sake of ending the war. This was reported by the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
The publication notes that "behind the facade of a constructive meeting and mutual trust," as the 90-minute conversation between Meloni and Zelensky was officially presented, lies "another story": a story of mutual pressure.
"From our prime minister's side, the message was direct, which can be summarized as: 'Consider the possibility that some painful concessions may have to be made,'" the Italian newspaper writes.
According to journalists, the overall Ukrainian-Italian negotiations "did not go smoothly" due to Italy's support for the Americans' urgency regarding a peace agreement and its general tendency to align more with the Americans than the Europeans. Additionally, Meloni's team "is not without comments" regarding the corruption scandal in Ukraine.
As the publication writes, citing rumors within Italy's ruling party, Meloni "exerts a certain kind of moral pressure" on Zelensky, including on behalf of the White House. In response, the Ukrainian president asks the Italian prime minister to soften Trump's position and try to smooth over the decision that the U.S. president seems to have already made - to achieve peace as quickly as possible, even at the cost of concessions from Kyiv.
Ukraine also has its own "shopping list": what Kyiv expects from Italy and has not yet received. In this context, the active role of Rome in transferring frozen Russian assets to Ukraine and joining the funding for the procurement of American weapons for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is specifically mentioned.
War in Ukraine: Italy's Position
As reported by UNIAN, Italy decided not to join NATO's PURL program for supplying American weapons to Ukraine - due to ongoing peace negotiations. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani explained that it is currently premature, as if an agreement is reached, hostilities will cease, and Ukraine will need other security guarantees, not armaments.
Earlier in October, the government in Rome signaled its readiness to join the program, but now Italy has become the first country in Europe to propose refraining from supplies during negotiations.
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