Meloni plans to visit Ukraine in early 2023

MADRID, 23 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, has announced this Friday that she plans to visit Ukraine in early 2023 and has reaffirmed the country's support for the Ukrainian government in full invasion of Russia.

"I will call President Volodimir Zelenski to convey my wishes to organize a visit, which I hope will take place during the first months of next year," he told Italian television channel Rai 1.

His predecessor in office, Mario Draghi, visited kyiv in June together with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Meloni, who has insisted that "Italy will continue to do what it has to do" to help the Ukrainians, has stressed that he continues to seek "dialogue and peace for kyiv".

"Today, peace in Europe cannot be taken for granted. Our freedom cannot be taken for granted. We do not have to go very far and we will be able to see that we are not in a very far place. We have to defend the International Law to which we were accustomed and that it is no longer fully guaranteed", he asserted.

Thus, he has stated that "those who know geopolitics know and understand that behind this conflict there really is a larger one, which does not only involve Russia and Ukraine". "The solidarity and firmness with which Italy has positioned itself in this conflict from the beginning is fundamental. The cornerstone of our commitment remains dialogue and the cessation of hostilities," he added.

"Obviously, I hear talk of peace very often, and it is a complex matter since I have never been convinced by the idea that declaring peace is enough to really obtain it," he pointed out, while warning that "the world is changing around us. "Everything is changing. (...) We have to defend a free world", she has underlined her.

Meloni took the opportunity to recall that "we are facing enormous challenges, which makes it necessary to use all the resources at our disposal in the best possible way". "We have before us the mission of defending the system created from the rubble of the conflicts of the Second World War," she concluded.