According to her spokeswoman, AFP, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni arrived in Kyiv on Tuesday. She will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky there.
During Russia’s incursion nearly precisely one year ago, Meloni, who into office in October, has often stated her wish to visit Ukraine to show her government’s support.
Italy, a member of NATO, has helped Ukraine with money and arms and earlier this month decided to provide mobile surface-to-air missile systems that it developed with France.
“We have provided financial, military, humanitarian and civilian support” to Kyiv “and Ukraine can certainly count on Italy because we have shown since the start… that we were here (for Kyiv) and we will continue to be here,” Meloni said at a press conference in Warsaw on Monday.
Meloni, the head of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, has also cut ties with her coalition allies who are more pro-Russian.
Matteo Salvini, the deputy prime minister and leader of the far-right League party, has previously shown his admiration for Vladimir Putin and even sported a T-shirt with the Russian leader’s image on it.
Silvio Berlusconi, a former prime minister whose Forza Italia party is a junior coalition member, has attempted to deflect responsibility for the war from Moscow, most recently earlier this week when he criticized Zelensky.
In retaliation, Meloni’s administration emphasized its “strong and devoted” support for Ukraine.
Along with the French president Emmanuel Macron and the German chancellor Olaf Scholz, the former Italian premier Mario Draghi paid a visit to Kyiv in June 2022.
