Peace, we must not lose sight of peace. It is the same message that in these hours that we hear repeated at the Farnesina and Palazzo Chigi, between the advisers of Prime Minister Mario Draghi and the diplomatic corps that follows Minister Luigi Di Maio. The matter is delicate and for this reason we are very careful in choosing the words, so as not to trigger suspicions of yielding to alliances. But there is no doubt, listening to the reconstructions of various government sources involved in the front line in the negotiating triangulations on the war in Ukraine, that the fear of having lost the real goal of all these last weeks is growing: the end of the armed conflict.
In recent days there have been contacts at very high levels between Turkey and Italy, between Di Maio and Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. The Foreign Minister of Ankara anticipated to his Italian colleague what he would later say during the interview with CNN Turk, the day before last night: “During the summit between NATO foreign ministers, I had the impression that there are some NATO members who want the conflict to continue. They want Russia to become weaker ». The reference is obvious: for Turkey, a member country of the Atlantic Alliance, the attitude of the United States and the United Kingdom does not help to find a way to achieve peace and complicates the work of diplomacy. What’s more: the Turks are becoming convinced that American President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson are working above all to obtain regime change, according to a precise scheme that must lead to the demolition of Russia and the fall of Vladimir Putin.
Italy is in a difficult position. As explained by Palazzo Chigi, the “indisputable” position of clear pro-Atlanticism did not prevent Draghi from repeatedly insisting on the search for peace. Even the supply of weapons, the sources of the Council presidency say, certainly does not run counter to this objective. Yesterday, Undersecretary of Defense Giorgio Mulè confirmed that the decree on the dispatch of armaments will arrive within this week. Always for defensive use. “Certainly we do not send airplanes or tanks, from a military point of view little changes compared to the type of those already sent”. It is likely that another decree will come later. Much will depend on the development of the conflict in Donbass and the rest of Ukraine and on Putin’s intentions. The Italian strategy aims to maintain the commitments made in the G7, NATO and EU sectors, on sanctions and military aid in Kiev, but at the same time the Farnesina is trying to regain the thread of diplomacy.
The pressure from diplomacy has reached Draghi. After an initial denial of the agenda, and the pressure that indirectly exists due to the visit, already taken or already planned, of the other European leaders, to Palazzo Chigi do not exclude that the premier may also fly to Kiev. It would be an opportunity to discuss face to face with President Volodymyr Zelensky about the real wishes of the Ukrainians and what concrete margins to leave for negotiations. According to Draghi, the prerequisite for seriously reasoning about peace “can only be a ceasefire”. And it is Putin who must give this signal. The Turks would have been convinced that a path, the one that according to Cavusoglu had been traced up to 29 March, is there and they are asking Italy to take the lead in order to concentrate every effort by the European Union on this, even at the cost of detaching itself from Washington. and London, as did Olaf Scholz in Germany. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is aiming for a “peace conference”, a format where other important players sit alongside Ukrainians and Russians.
A new world order is at stake in Ukraine and it is clear that Erdogan wants to gain an advantage and build a global role for Turkey. The Italian diplomats know this but on the other hand they also fear an escalation that will drag the war on for a long time, with fatal repercussions for Europe. It is no coincidence that it was Di Maio, in line with Ankara, who became the spokesperson for the need for a “peace conference”, something much more structured than the tables in favor of cameras where the delegates of Kiev and Moscow, but without any success. “Bringing peace back to the center is a duty,” the minister continually argues. How, though? This is the question. Doing so without isolating the Ukrainian resistance and President Zelensky is imperative.