Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was received by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during his visit to Rome. After his meeting with President Sergio Mattarella, Zelensky drove up to Palazzo Chigi early on Saturday afternoon. Meloni greeted him warmly in the courtyard of her official residence. After the military honors, the two went to the building for a working lunch. According to the Italian newspaper "La Repubblica", the conversation between Zelensky and Meloni lasted seventy minutes.
Matthias Rüb
Political correspondent for Italy, the Vatican, Albania and Malta, based in Rome.
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Mattarella had previously expressed his country's solidarity with Zelensky. Italy is "fully on the side" of Ukraine. "It is an honour to have you here in Rome," said the Italian President.
Zelensky wrote on Twitter that it was an "important visit to achieve Ukraine's victory". On Telegram, he said, "Italy is and has been on the right side, on the side of truth in this war."
The Ukrainian president arrived on Saturday morning for his first visit to Italy since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression. At Rome's Ciampino airport, he was received by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. After the appointment with Meloni, a meeting with Pope Francis in the Vatican was also on the agenda.
"Peace comes from Rome"
According to the front pages of Italian newspapers on Saturday morning, the purpose of Zelensky's trip to Italy was clear even before his arrival. "Peace comes from Rome," was the slogan of "Il Tempo". The "Messaggero" announced: "Zelensky for peace in Rome." Perhaps more appropriate, because it is descriptive instead of declamatory, is the headline of the "Libero": "The Vatican and Italy are working for peace".
It remains to be seen whether peace has actually come closer after the apparent start of the Ukrainian spring offensive to liberate the territories occupied by Russian forces in the east of the country. In any case, on his recent trips abroad – most recently to the Netherlands and Norway – the Ukrainian president spoke more of arms deliveries than of peace initiatives.
It will be no different in Rome, Zelensky's advisor Mykhailo Podolyak confirmed in an interview with the "Corriere della Sera" on Saturday. Today, Ukraine primarily needs "long-range missiles, fighter-bombers, large quantities of ammunition and air defense systems," Podolyak said.
Commenting on the Vatican's ominous peace initiative, which Pope Francis spoke of on his return from Hungary on April 30, Podolyak said that instead of "mechanically talking about negotiations," it would be appropriate to highlight the "complete withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory as a necessary starting point for negotiations." After all, Podolyak welcomed the Vatican's mediation efforts in humanitarian matters, prisoner exchanges, as well as the attempt to return children and abducted adults deported to Russia to their Ukrainian homeland.
Military equipment worth around 660 million euros
Kiev's relations with Rome have been considered very good since the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has led a centre-right coalition with Transport Minister Matteo Salvini's right-wing nationalist Lega and Silvio Berlusconi's Christian Democrat Forza Italia since October 2022, has continued the clearly pro-Ukrainian course of her predecessor Mario Draghi and his broad coalition.
According to Italian media reports, Rome has delivered weapons and military equipment worth around 660 million euros to Ukraine since the beginning of the war, as well as 300 million euros in financial support and 60 million euros in humanitarian aid. For weeks, Ukrainian soldiers have been trained at the Pratica di Mare military airport near Rome on the modern Italian-French air defense system SAMP/T, the delivery of which to Kyiv is scheduled to begin this summer.