Last Updated: December 23, 2022, 06:54 IST
Italy’s newly appointed PM Giorgia Meloni speaks to the media after a meeting with Italian President Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinale Palace in Rome, Italy, on Friday. (Image: REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane)
Meloni’s predecessor, Mario Draghi, visited Kyiv in June with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whose far-right government backs Kyiv, on Thursday said she wanted to visit Ukraine early next year.
Meloni has reaffirmed support for Ukraine against the Russian invasion, although her government includes the far-right League and Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing Forza Italia parties.
Both Matteo Salvini of the League party and former premier Berlusconi have long enjoyed warm relations with Russia.
“I will call (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky to present my wishes and to organise this trip that I intend to make in the first months of next year,” Meloni said during a programme on Italian television Rai 1.
“We are in the period when nearly all cultures around the world celebrate light” while Ukrainians “live in darkness”, she said.
Moscow has attacked power plants and other civilian infrastructure in Ukraine while the country shivers in the winter cold.
“Just imagine what it would be like to turn everything off during the festive period, even if it’s only for an hour: gas, electricity, telephone, television… We would understand… just how much their ability to resist is remarkable,” she said.
Meloni’s predecessor, Mario Draghi, visited Kyiv in June with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)
