Zelensky in Rome, the Italian mission of the Ukrainian president
Zelensky’s arrival in Rome for meetings with Prime Minister Meloni and with the President of the Republic Mattarella and, in particular, with Pope Francis, is an important fact but it must not turn on the lights of illusions. Nor on the real and rapid possibility of silencing the weapons in the Ukraine devastated by 15 months of war and opening negotiations with Putin, nor that the Russian rais is now isolated, if only because of his chemistry with Beijing. Zelensky goes to Palazzo Chigi to ask for further military support in conjunction with the repeatedly announced counter-offensive in Kiev. On the field he continues to fight, with deaths and devastation. However, there does not seem to be a willingness to deploy all their forces on both fronts, as if “something” was expected on a diplomatic level. Illusions? We will soon see if what they are leaking from just beyond the Tiber is true, that is, that the Vatican is mediating. The two sides, of course, deny. We work on an inclined and mined plane to say the least.
This is where the Ukrainians and the West want only one thing: for the Russian aggressor to leave Ukraine. From there Putin who insists on his refrain: “Ukrainiansna does not exist”, with all that follows. The Pope has never had and has no illusions. However, he never threw in the towel: “The door to peace is narrow but there is no other solution”, without playing the part of Pontius Pilate, indeed with a very clear distinction between the aggressor (Russia) and the attacked ( Ukraine). And with great courage he had said: “I am ready to go to Moscow and talk to Putin”. Today Zelensky could renew the invitation for the Pope’s visit to Ukraine. The Vatican’s mission is more difficult than ever and must be kept secret. Unbelievers say it doesn’t exist.
Pessimists bet on its failure. The optimists think that it is no illusion that it is the Vatican that is hosting peace talks, not in the short term. In short, it seems that today in Ukraine there are not only missiles and bombs, blood and destruction and that behind Putin’s threatening words, there is also something else, the opening of possible glimmers to get around a table.
The US is not only busy supporting Zelensky with more dollars and more weaponry: they are pressing for a solution to the war in Ukraine by the end of the year, there is even talk by the autumn. And they are strengthening all diplomatic channels to avoid the risk of a further Vietnamisation of the conflict, an objective that could also be favored by a thaw with China.
Zelensky in Rome, the requests to Meloni and the Pope from the Ukrainian president
Today Zelensky wants to leave Palazzo Chigi with the certainty that Italy will send more weapons. And in the Vatican it will not be easy to reconcile hypotheses of peace negotiations knowing that Zelensky is in Rome, in any case, to bring new armaments to his army. The Vatican’s “peace mission”, for obvious and understandable diplomatic reasons, will not be the subject of discussion today in Rome between the Pope and Zelensky. However, Zelensky’s official invitation to Pope Francis to go to Ukraine soon could be the first, decisive step, to tackle the “peace mission” topic on the ground in Kiev. Time is running out. Either this line finds consensus on both sides in the war or Europe and the whole world risk sinking into the abyss.
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