(Adnkronos) – A “fair” settlement to end Russia’s almost four-year invasion of Ukraine “will take time” and the European Union will oppose any attempt to defeat the former Soviet Republic, Italy said ahead of talks in Moscow on Thursday between top US officials and president Vladimir Putin.
“A fair agreement must be reached on Ukraine,” Italy’s foreign minister Antonio Tajani told public broadcaster Rai’s ‘Porta a Porta’ talk show late on Wednesday.
“The EU will be forced to dig in its heels if there is any attempt to see Ukraine defeated. And Russia must not be humiliated either,” Tajani continued.
US president Donald Trump wields influence over Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, Tajani argued.
“But we are not talking about a matter of weeks, it will still take time,” said Tajani.
US envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are due to hold talks on “the Ukraine settlement issue” and other related topics, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday ahead of the meeting slated for the late afternoon.
Pescov declined to comment on the current state of negotiations after Witkoff earlier said a lot of progress had been made and that there was only one last issue to resolve.
