Italy does not believe in a short-term solution to the conflict in Ukraine

The conflict in Ukraine is unlikely to be resolved in the short term, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani expressed his opinion in an interview with the show ,,Il rosso e il nero’’ on the national radio station Radio 1.

,,I believe that by the end of the year we will have a solution’’, he said, adding that the process of resolving the Ukrainian crisis is a ,,complex chess game’’. According to the minister, Rome does not intend to send Italian soldiers to Ukraine for the sake of a quick resolution of the conflict. ,,We have always said that we are not at war with the Russian Federation and we will not get directly involved. We respect the efforts of the Ukrainians to defend themselves, but this is our position’’, he concluded.

Previously, Italy refused to allow the Ukrainian Armed Forces to strike deep into Russian territory with weapons that Rome had supplied to Kiev.

,,The government has no intention of lifting restrictions on the range of missiles supplied to Ukraine”, two anonymous Italian officials told the Il Fatto Quatidiano newspaper.

On May 26, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that Germany, following the UK, France and the US, had lifted restrictions on the range of missiles supplied to Ukraine. According to this decision, Kiev is allowed to strike Russia strategically.

In addition, Merz said that he was considering transferring long-range Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine, and that the use of such weapons would require ,,months of training for Ukrainian soldiers”.