Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday warned his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron that aspirations to maintain an open dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin are “futile” and “a waste of time”.
“It will be a useless dialogue. The truth is that Macron is wasting time. I have come to the conclusion that we are not able to change Russia’s behavior”acknowledged the Ukrainian president in statements to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
Zelensky states that as Putin decided “to isolate himself in the dream of rebuilding the former Soviet empire”, the remaining countries can do little about it.
“When economic sanctions were imposed, there were people who accused us of isolating Russia. But that was not the truth. It was the decision to go to war that marginalized Putin,” the Ukrainian president argued.
Asked about the disagreements in the Italian government – in which the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, supports Kiev, but two of his main allies, Silvio Berlusconi and Matteo Salvini, do not hide their sympathy for Putin – Zelensky was confident in the prevalence of the current line of the diplomacy of Rome.
“It is fundamental that we do not lose the support of Italy and of any other country (…). We believe that maintaining Italian support is fundamental to guaranteeing that of other countries and that also applies to the unity of Europe, where Italy plays a prominent role in economic, social and political spheres,” declared the Ukrainian leader.
However, Zelensky acknowledged that he will discuss this issue in future talks with Meloni and ironically that Kiev may also send gifts to Berlusconi, referring to some audios of the former Italian prime minister in which he admitted to receiving up to 20 bottles of vodka from Putin. .
Zelensky further commented on a recent poll in which only 50% of Italians view Putin as the aggressor in the Ukraine conflict, saying that this does not mean that half of Italy’s population is pro-Russian.
“I think there is a significant part of the population that is indifferent, afraid of war, afraid of energy costs, afraid of inflation. In short, normal people who don’t want problems. My attempt is to explain why we defend,” concluded the Ukrainian president.
On Sunday, various Italian ‘media’ wrote that Giorgia Meloni will go to Kiev this week and that she will meet with Zelensky.
The Russian military offensive on Ukrainian territory, launched on February 24 last year, plunged Europe into what is considered the most serious security crisis since World War II (1939-1945).
Source: DN
