Italy ready to guarantee Ukraine’s neutral status — Analysis
Rome is working “non-stop” to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict “through sanctions,” Italy’s foreign minister has said
Italy is actively seeking to broker peace in Ukraine and is willing to become a guarantor of the country’s neutral status, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said on Saturday. These remarks were made by the diplomat after meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun bayramov in Baku.
“Italy is working non-stop to put this conflict to an end through sanctions and without ever giving up the diplomatic channels. The continuation of negotiations between the parties and a humanitarian truce are priorities,”Di Maio said, acknowledging “progress”this was done during Russia-Ukraine discussions in Turkey earlier this year.
Rome is ultimately ready to become a guarantor of Ukraine’s potential neutral status, which would see the country avoiding alignment with any military blocs, Di Maio added. Moscow has made it clear that they are ready to establish such status, and ensure that Kiev does not join the US-led NATO military alliance.
It is open to contributing to the peace process as well as to ensuring the neutrality and security of Ukraine.
Moscow launched a large-scale offensive against its neighboring state in late February, following Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements signed in 2014, and Russia’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics in Donetsk and Lugansk. These protocols, which were mediated by France and Germany, had been created to regulate the state of these regions in the Ukrainian government.
Russia now demands that Ukraine declare itself neutral and vows to never join NATO. Kiev maintains the Russian attack was not provoked and denies that it planned to seize the two republics using force.
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