That of Russia against Ukraine ” is Putin’s war, of the Russian government. We will continue to weaken him with more and more sanctions until he stops, until we reduce the money he needs to finance this war. ” This was stated by Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio speaking at ‘Che tempo che fa’ on Rai Tre.
NEGOTIATED – ” There are negotiations underway for a peace agreement ” in Ukraine, ” but before reaching it we must work on localized humanitarian truces on the ground – said Di Maio – And tomorrow Italy, at the Council of Foreign Ministers of the EU, will ask to establish a permanent table with the Red Cross and UNHCR, the conditions for establishing localized truces also taking the model of Sumy or Mariupol, where thousands of people have been taken away and bring in humanitarian aid ”. “We must succeed in this enterprise because we do not have time to wait for peace agreements”, he stressed, and “priority must be given to the areas where there are orphanages. From there we must start under an EU initiative that can succeed ”.
” Tomorrow morning I will hear from my Turkish colleague Mevlut Cavusoglu. Turkey has a great role in achieving this peace agreement ” between Russia and Ukraine, said the head of the foreign ministry. “With Cavusoglu we are in constant coordination to move the peace process forward,” he added.
ZELENSKY – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky who will speak in Parliament on 22 March ” will be welcomed with open arms by our democratic institutions ”, said the head of the Farnesina. ” I was in Kiev a week before the Russian attack, I met many Ukrainian citizens who looked to the EU as their dream for the future – added Di Maio – Those people are already a European people who have ambition to join ours European family. We must not deny that hope, they have every right to it, and this scares Putin because that people are looking at our free and democratic model where propaganda absolutely cannot take hold. ”
ITALIANS IN UKRAINE – ” Now there are 276 ” Italians present in Ukraine and ” we are following the cases that ask us for help – said the Foreign Minister – We are working hard on the evacuations ” and ” from 400 in a week we went to 276, the majority of them declare that they want to stay in Ukraine. But things change from hour to hour. ”
VISIT BIDEN – “The presence of the president of the United States in Europe aims above all to affirm once again the principle of unity of NATO, the EU and all our allies in the world” said Di Maio. “This – he stressed – is another error of assessment that Putin has made, that is to be able to divide us. Instead it is no longer a conflict between east and west ” and ” what we will reaffirm with President Biden is that we are united, we condemn this war and we are on the side of the Ukrainian people who have been invaded by a Russian army that is paying in terms of lives ”.
THREATS RUSSIA – As for Russia’s threats to Italy ”, they are daily provocations that every country that is on the side of peace and of the Ukrainian people receives from Russia. We do not even notice it anymore, we cannot consider these provocations as truthful ” said the Foreign Minister who then expressed ” solidarity with Minister Guerini ”. “Unfortunately we are in good company”, added Di Maio, recalling the Russian threats “against Germany, France, Malta, all the countries that strongly condemn Putin for what he is doing”.
ARRESTS IN RUSSIA – In Russia there have been “over 15 thousand arrests” of anti-war protesters, because “the Russian people do not support the invasion of Ukraine”, said Di Maio. “With his propaganda, with the arrests of those who protest against him, Putin is continuing to hide the truth”, “in Russia there is no possibility of being reached by credible information. And despite this there are thousands of people demonstrating in the square “against the war.” This shows that it is not the Russian people who are supporting the invasion of Ukraine. It is the government of Putin, of the Russian government “.
POWER – On the energy front, “all the countries I have visited in the last three weeks have agreed to increase the energy partnership with Italy, which will allow us to deal with any critical issues arising from Russian blackmail by the winter”. The Foreign Minister mentioned “Qatar, Algeria, Angola, Congo and yesterday Mozambique”. ” There is always an alternative for democratic powers like Italy. We never depend on a single country and thanks to our history we can always build alternative roads to any blackmail ”, he concluded.
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