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UKRAINE

‘A waste of time’: Talks with Putin go nowhere, says Italy’s PM

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Sunday that the diplomatic efforts by the West to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to halt the war in Ukraine had so far achieved nothing.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi leaves after a speech on the Ukraine situation in Rome's Palazzo Chigi on February 24, 2022, after Russia's ground forces invaded Ukraine.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi has said that talks with Putin haven't been effective so far. Photo by Remo Casilli / POOL / AFP.

“I am beginning to think that those people are right when they say ‘It is useless to talk to him, it’s just a waste of time’,” Draghi told Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera.

Draghi said he had always felt French President Emmanuel Macron, who currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, “is right to try every possible avenue of dialogue.

“But I have the impression that the horror of the war with its carnage, with what they have done to children and women, is completely independent of the words and phone calls that are made,” the Italian leader said.

So far, Putin’s goal had not been the search for peace, “but the attempt to annihilate the Ukrainian resistance, occupy the country and entrust it to a friendly government,” Draghi continued.

Draghi spoke with Putin in recent days about achieving peace.

“I asked him: ‘When are you meeting (Ukraine president) Zelensky? Only you two can untie the knots’. He replied: ‘The time is not now’. I insisted: ‘Decide on a ceasefire’. Again, ‘No: the time is not now’.”

Like many others at the beginning of the conflict, Draghi had thought a quick victory for the Russians was likely.

READ ALSO: ‘Peace or air conditioning?’ Italy vows to follow EU on Russian gas embargo

“This did not happen: the victory did not come and we do not know if it will ever come. The Ukrainian resistance is heroic,” Draghi said.

Draghi’s comments follow the discovery of mass graves in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, recently occupied by the Russian army. Photo by ARIS MESSINIS / AFP

“What awaits us is a war of resistance, prolonged violence with destruction that will continue. There is no sign that the Ukrainian people can accept the Russian occupation.”

Speaking of the atrocities in Bucha, where civilians were left dead in the street, Draghi was cautious to label what Russian troops committed there – as are other European leaders such as Spain’s prime minister who saw possible ‘genocide’ in Ukraine.

“What do we want to call the horror of Bucha if not war crimes? But I understand that terms like ‘genocide’ or ‘war crimes’ have a precise legal meaning,” he said.

“There will be a way and time to verify which words best suit the inhuman acts of the Russian army,” Draghi added.

Draghi’s comments came after Italy said it would reopen its Ukrainian embassy in Kyiv from Monday.

The Ukraine war has sparked a Western push for sanctions against Moscow, including moves to drastically cut purchases of Russian gas.

READ ALSO: Italy rejects Russian demand for gas payment in rubles

The Italian government has taken steps to reduce reliance on Russia, such as signing a gas deal with Algeria.

Draghi said that while economic sanctions against Russia were “essential to weaken the aggressor,”  they would not necessarily stop the war in the short term.

Nevertheless, the West could help Ukraine directly by supplying weapons.

“We need to help the Ukrainians directly, and that is what we are doing. Not doing so would be tantamount to telling them: surrender, accept slavery and submission – a message contrary to our European values of solidarity,” Draghi said.

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EU

Italy’s Meloni hopes EU ‘understands message’ from voters

Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Saturday she hoped the European Union would understand the "message" sent by voters in last weekend's elections, after far-right parties such as hers made gains.

Italy's Meloni hopes EU 'understands message' from voters

Meloni, head of the post-fascist Brothers of Italy party, which performed particularly well in the vote, urged the EU to “understand the message that has come from European citizens”.

“Because if we want to draw lessons from the vote that everything was fine, I fear it would be a slightly distorted reading,” she told a press conference at the end of a G7 summit in Puglia.

“European citizens are calling for pragmatism, they are calling for an approach that is much less ideological on several major issues,” she said.

Meloni’s right-wing government coalition has vehemently opposed the European Green Deal and wants a harder stance on migration.

“Citizens vote for a reason. It seems to me that a message has arrived, and it has arrived clearly,” she said.

EU leaders will meet in Brussels on Monday to negotiate the top jobs, including whether European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen will get a second term.

Von der Leyen’s centre-right European People’s Party strengthened its grip with the vote, but her reconfirmation is not yet in the bag.

The 65-year-old conservative was in Puglia for the G7 and likely used the summit to put her case to the leaders of France, Germany and Italy.

But Meloni refused to be drawn on whom she is backing.

“We will have a meeting on Monday, we’ll see,” she told journalists.

“We will also see what the evaluations will be on the other top roles,” she said.

Italian political watchers say Meloni is expected to back von der Leyen, but is unlikely to confirm that openly until Rome locks in a deal on commissioner jobs.

“What interests me is that… Italy is recognised for the role it deserves,” she said.

“I will then make my assessments.”

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani indicated that it was unlikely any decision would be made before the French elections on June 30 and July 7.

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