Barbara Grisafi

As always, a good meeting with President of the Council of Ministers of Italy @GiorgiaMeloni. I briefed her on the negotiation process, particularly the meetings in Abu Dhabi and the next diplomatic steps. It is important that Europe be fully involved in the process when it comes to ending the war, security guarantees, and the future of our entire continent. We also discussed Ukraine’s defense needs amid relentless Russian strikes on our cities and energy infrastructure. First and foremost – strengthening our air defenses and missiles for the systems, which are critically needed to protect people this winter. I thank Giorgia and all of Italy for their continued assistance and support for Ukraine.

When I received the second report from our negotiating team after their meetings in Abu Dhabi, they told me that the Russians think and say they have already occupied half of Donbas, which remains under our control. These were military officers, Russian intelligence, and they were serious about it. Our team told them, “We don’t know how you can even say such things. We have video footage, images, other things proving that these areas are under our control.” This is the problem. Putin lives in a different reality. Of course, he will be sharing with the Americans that he needs one or two months to fully occupy the east of Ukraine. I can draw a picture for him too where I fully occupy Russia. But it’s not true. What was good is that the American side confirmed the Ukrainian assessment of what is happening on the battlefield. This is why we need to sit and speak at the level of leaders. There are a lot of questions. Like we spoke about the city of Kherson that is divided by the river today. The Russians control one bank, we control the other. But people want to live united on both banks. This is a Ukrainian city. Such issues are sensitive, but we have to speak about them. I think that tomorrow the teams will discuss the possibility of meeting at the level of leaders. I'm not sure that Russia is ready, but we will raise this topic. From a conversation with journalists.