• The former Italian Prime Minister blames the Ukrainian President for the conflict with Russia.
• Berlusconi stated that if Zelenskyy had ceased bombing the two Donbas separatist republics, the war would not have occurred.
• Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni accused France of undermining EU unity in Ukraine.

Rome: Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Sunday that if he were still in charge, he would not seek a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskyy because he blames the Ukrainian President for the conflict with Russia.

Berlusconi, 86, had boasted of his closeness with Russian President Vladimir Putin until Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last September when he declared Putin had been pushed into the war and wanted “decent people” in charge of Kyiv.

Berlusconi, the leader of the country’s ruling coalition’s conservative Forza Italia party, was commenting after Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni accused France of undermining EU unity on Ukraine by hosting a Franco-German dinner in Paris with Zelenskyy that excluded other European allies.

“I would never have gone talking to Zelenskyy because we are witnessing the devastation of his country and the slaughter of its soldiers and civilians,” Berlusconi told journalists after voting at a polling station for a regional election in Lombardy.

He also stated that if Zelenskyy had ceased bombing the two Donbas separatist republics, the war would not have occurred. “So I judge this gentleman’s behavior very, very gentleman,” Berlusconi added.

Meloni’s office said the Italian government’s support for Ukraine is “firm and convinced, as clearly stated in the program and as confirmed in all the parliamentary votes of the majority supporting the executive”.

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