Giorgia Meloni is to visit Kyiv on Tuesday

Giorgia Meloni is in Kyiv on Tuesday, a trip to distance himself from Berlusconi on the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Georgia Meloni and Vladimir Zelensky (Photo:Palazzo Chigi Press Office/Handout via REUTERS)

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will be in Kyiv on Tuesday, February 21, a few days before the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Il Fatto Quotidiano reports that the trip is being accelerated, especially after Silvio Berlusconi’s statements.

Last Sunday, at a polling station in Lombardy, the Forza Italia leader criticized the gesture of the Italian prime minister, who interviewed Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the European Council in Brussels: “I would not have met with him,” Berlusconi said, “I assess him very negatively. Words that reignited a very fierce debate both in Italy and abroad, to the point of European tensions that prompted EPP leaders to cancel an event in Naples with caustic comments against the former Italian prime minister. Meloni had already said that she intended to arrive in the Ukrainian capital by February 24, but after the announcement, the flight was postponed several times, Il Fatto explains. It was also due to the flu, which in recent days forced the prime minister to cancel all international meetings on his agenda.

The details of Meloni’s trip to Ukraine have not yet been determined, but one of the planned stops is in Poland, where the prime minister will meet with the president of the Warsaw Council, Mateusz Morawiecki, one of the closest associates of the FdI leader in the. European Conservatives group. The meeting will attempt to restore the image of the prime minister isolated in Europe by the Franco-German axis while reaffirming support for the Visegrad Group. Kyiv’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba reiterated Meloni’s visit last Friday during the Munich conference.