 "Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni arrives for an informal summit of European leaders to discuss the situation in Ukraine and European security at The Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris on February 17, 2025. Image- AFP")
Russia has reacted angrily after Italy’s president compared its war in Ukraine to Nazi Germany’s aggression, intensifying the ongoing tensions between Rome and Moscow over the conflict.
In a statement issued on Sunday, Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned that President Sergio Mattarella’s remarks “cannot and will never be left without consequences.”
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni accused Russia of “offending the entire Italian nation” on Friday as she stood by comments by the Italian president that compared modern-day Russia to Nazi Germany.
In a speech last week, President Sergio Mattarella criticised the “wars of aggression” that led to World War Two. “This was the project of the Third Reich in Europe. The current Russian aggression against Ukraine is of this nature,” he said.
Zakharova initially hit back on Friday, accusing Mattarella of “outrageous blatantly false historical parallels”.
She accused Italy – which along with other NATO countries has sent weapons and money to help Ukraine defend itself against Moscow – of “pumping the terrorist Kyiv neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine with modern lethal weaponry”.
She launched another verbal attack on Sunday, criticising “the president of a country that historically has been among those who attacked our country”.
“Unfortunately, Italy was the country where fascism originated,” she added, referring to Benito Mussolini’s regime that allied with Nazi Germany during World War II.
Russia, then the Soviet Union, was allied with Britain and the United States against Nazi Germany during the war.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsPoliticians in Italy jumped to Mattarella’s defence, including Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who said that Moscow’s comments “offend the entire Italian nation”.
Italy once had the largest Communist party in the West and has traditionally had warm relations with Russia.
Former premier Silvio Berlusconi was personally close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, with the two men even taking a holiday together.
But since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Italy – first under former premier Mario Draghi and then Meloni – has firmly backed Kyiv.
However, it has so far refused to allow Kyiv to use its weapons outside Ukrainian territory.
With inputs from AFP