For 90 minutes, Italian PM urged Zelenskyy to make concessions and accept Trump’s terms – media
During Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Italy, a 90-minute meeting with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni revealed not only a formally good atmosphere but also serious tensions.
According to participants, both sides clearly set out their positions. Meloni, in particular, said that Ukraine might have to make "painful concessions".
As reported by Censor.NET, Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera wrote about the meeting.
Italy pressed Ukraine: 90 minutes of talks
Before the main meeting, Meloni held a closed-door consultation with Italy’s defence and foreign ministers, as well as separate talks between Ukrainian and Italian ministers.
The main issues proved difficult. Italy supports the acceleration of negotiations proposed by the US administration and is also assessing the role of the Ukrainian government after corruption scandals.
The prime minister stresses that Italy seeks a just and lasting peace, leaning more towards the American approach than the European one.
At the same time, according to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, Kyiv expects a more active stance from Italy: assistance in unblocking Russian assets in Belgium, clarity regarding the PURL programme, the purchase of American weapons for Ukraine and the allocation of part of European funds directly to support the Ukrainian army.
At present, Italy is one of four countries among the 19 EU member states that will not use part of their military assistance for Kyiv.
According to the newspaper, the meeting showed that the talks were not free of disagreements: both sides clearly voiced their differences for the first time. Meloni remains in a difficult position. On the one hand, she supports European efforts to defend Ukraine; on the other, she does not deviate from the hard line pursued by Donald Trump’s administration.
As a reminder, after his meeting with the President of the Council of Ministers of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the Italian government for a new package of energy support and the equipment needed to restore Ukraine’s power system.
