Amid the U.S. military operation in Venezuela, which resulted in the capture of the illegitimate president Nicolás Maduro and his wife in Caracas, the position of some European countries on Ukraine appears to have changed, giving hope for a return to common sense and reality.
As part of this refreshing ’new wave’ in the EU, Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, one of Trump’s main allies in the EU, said that Europe needs to restore direct communication with the Kremlin in order to have leverage in negotiations on ending the war in Ukraine.
With regard to this statement, it should be noted that Meloni agreed with French President Emmanuel Macron, who had said in last December, that Europe should resume a certain level of direct dialogue with Russia.
She also said that she believes Macron was right, arguing that the time had come for Europe to talk to Russia about ending the war, otherwise Europe’s influence would be limited. At the same time, the Italian PM stressed that the key question was who should conduct such talks, warning that Europe must not act chaotically, as this would only play into Putin’s hands. Meloni suggested appointing a special envoy for discussions with Moscow.
Since the start of negotiations on a potential ceasefire in Ukraine, ’many voices have been speaking out, and that’s why I’ve always been in favor of appointing a European special envoy on the Ukrainian issue,’ Meloni said.
Either a lasting peace would be achieved through the current US-led negotiations, ’or we find ways for Europeans to re-engage in a dialog with Russia – in transparency and association with Ukraine’, Macron said in December, after EU leaders agreed to provide €90 billion in support for Ukraine over the next two years from the EU budget and after Donald Trump said on 18 December that he believed negotiations to end the war in Ukraine will soon lead to a result.
Despite peace talks aimed at ending the Russo-Ukrainian war have indeed accelerated under the leadership of U.S. President Donald Trump, these negotiations, have so far failed to yield results, given that neither party is willing to give up its position. Moreover, a number of countries in the so-called Coalition of the Willing say that, with the support of the West, Ukraine should continue the war until victory is achieved.
Some EU leaders, such as Macron and Meloni, seem to have finally understood that the only chance to stop the bloodshed in Ukraine is to resume dialogue with Moscow, regardless of whether this idea appeals to the supporters of war. It should be noted that, in the fourth year of the Russo-Ukrainian war, critical voices are heard more and more often in the EU. One of them is Slovak PM Robert Fico who, in an interview published on Facebook, has recently accused the bloc of inaction, saying that the only thing the EU does perfectly is hate Russians.
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