(Adnkronos) – Russia’s president Vladimir Putin and a European Union representative need to be at a negotiating table to end the over-four-year-old war by reaching a “just” peace settlement, Italy said on Thursday, underlining its unwavering support for Ukraine.
“We hope that Putin will come to his senses and sit down at a table where Europe must also be present. This is because Europe, having imposed sanctions on Russia, must lift them in order to achieve peace,” Tajani told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Rome for students interested in studying medicine.
“For this reason, Europe cannot be absent. It will choose its own representative, not Putin,” said Tajani.
Putin has repeatedly suggested Kremlin-friendly former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to play a role in Ukraine peace talks, a candidate ruled out by EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas as a “high-level lobbyist for Russian state-owned companies”.
“We are committed to supporting Ukraine; we have always said so, have always acted accordingly, and we will continue to do so,” Tajani continued.
“The prime minister (Giorgia Meloni) reiterated this yesterday during her talks with (Ukraine’s president Volodymyr) Zelensky (at a Nato summit in Ankara), and I spoke at length with Zelensky about our support for Ukraine during my last mission to Kiev (in late March),” he said.
Despite Italy and other western countries’ support for Ukraine in its war with invader Russia, “this does not mean we do not want peace,” said Tajani.
“We want this war to end and a just peace to be achieved: a peace that does not penalise the victim of the aggression to the advantage of the aggressor,” Tajani underlined.
