As part of a diplomatic journey that also included Germany, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with Pope Francis and the Prime Minister of Italy on Saturday. Berlin had just presented a significant new weapons package in anticipation of an anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive.
“An important visit for (the) approaching victory of Ukraine!” Zelensky tweeted as he arrived in Rome, on his first visit to EU and NATO member Italy since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
According to a German government source, Zelensky was scheduled to arrive in Berlin on Sunday. The German defense ministry had already announced a new arms package worth 2.7 billion euros ($2.95 billion) for Ukraine.
Zelensky’s travel to Rome was heavily guarded and began with a formal welcome from President Sergio Mattarella. This was followed by a 70-minute face-to-face with Meloni.
Zelensky thanked Meloni “for helping to save lives” in a joint press conference while outlining what he called recent Russian aggressions.
“I have not come to complain, I have come to talk about our cooperation and to thank you once again for helping us, for the sake of our country, because we want peace,” he said.
Italy has been a staunch ally of Kyiv, supplying arms and aid as well as supporting sanctions on Russia, despite having a history of cordial relations with Moscow, including within Meloni’s hard-right coalition government.
In February, Meloni paid a visit to Zelensky in Kyiv. She later said, “I am convinced that Ukraine will win and be reborn stronger, more proud, and more prosperous than before.”
Zelensky then proceeded directly to the Vatican for a meeting with Pope Francis, which, in accordance with video made available by the Holy See, he hailed as a “great honor”.
The 86-year-old pope has prayed for peace in Ukraine and for the war’s victims virtually every week, despite the fact that his promises to mediate have not yet had any visible results.
Russia ‘Bound To Lose’
The new package from Germany, which will include 30 additional Leopard-1 tanks, Marder armoured vehicles, air-defence systems and surveillance drones, is reportedly Berlin’s largest since Russia’s invasion.
“We all hope for a rapid end to this terrible war by Russia against the Ukrainian people, but unfortunately this is not in sight,” Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said in a statement.
“This is why Germany will supply all the help that it can, for as long as necessary,” he said.
Italy has been a staunch ally of Kyiv, supplying arms and aid as well as supporting sanctions on Russia, despite having a history of cordial relations with Moscow, including within Meloni’s hard-right coalition government.
In February, Meloni paid a visit to Zelensky in Kyiv. She later said, “I am convinced that Ukraine will win and be reborn stronger, more proud, and more prosperous than before.”
Zelensky then proceeded directly to the Vatican for a meeting with Pope Francis, which, in accordance with video made available by the Holy See, he hailed as a “great honor”.
The 86-year-old pope has prayed for peace in Ukraine and for the war’s victims virtually every week, despite the fact that his promises to mediate have not yet had any visible results.
“The Russians are bombing from far away so the Ukrainians have to have the capacity to reach… the same distance, the same range,” Borrell said after a meeting with Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Stockholm.
“But we have to speed up,” he said.
Fighting Intensifies
On the front line, meanwhile, near the eastern flashpoint town of Bakhmut, both sides claimed to be making progress.
“Our soldiers are moving forward in some areas of the front, and the enemy is losing equipment and manpower,” commander of the Ukrainian ground forces Oleksandr Syrskyi said on social media.
Russia said its forces were still pushing inside Bakhmut.
“In the Donetsk direction, assault detachments liberated a block in the northwestern part of the city of Artemovsk,” the defence ministry said, referring to Bakhmut by its Russian name.
Despite conflicting reports from the front lines, it appears that fighting has intensified after months of comparatively calm conditions as anticipation for Kyiv’s upcoming spring onslaught grows.
Though Zelensky indicated earlier this week that his army needed more time to prepare, speculation over the timing and location of Ukraine’s high-stakes struggle to drive Russian forces from occupied area has persisted.
Suffering And Death
Zelensky and Pope Francis have spoken on the phone since Russia’s invasion, although their last meeting took place in February 2020.
The pontiff once more bemoaned the crisis in Ukraine, saying it “has brought suffering and unspeakable deaths” in an earlier speech to ambassadors on Saturday.
Denys Shmyhal, the prime minister of Ukraine, welcomed the pope to visit his country and requested his assistance in getting children who had been taken without their will to Russia during a papal audience last month.
