While Trump’s envoys in Kiev continue to press for him to sign the peace agreement by next Thursday, the American peace plan is being examined in detail by European leaders. Meanwhile, the G20 summit, which brings together global heads of state and government, is taking place in the South African capital, and has thus become an opportunity to delve deeper and understand the next developments on the Ukrainian front. The Italian Prime Minister was involved in the summit today and, on this important topic, also in a series of bilateral meetings. “Italy – he said – is ready to work with its European and American partners to achieve a just peace, just as Italy is already contributing in the Middle East to consolidate a result that is fragile but still very important”, he explained, returning to condemn “the unjustified Russian war of aggression against Ukraine”.
Yesterday, according to European sources, the Prime Minister met the President of the European Council, Antonio Costa, and the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on the sidelines of the G20, after their phone call with the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky. “Intense diplomatic efforts on the peace plan for Ukraine” are on the table. This morning, at the end of a coordination meeting on the sidelines of the Summit, the leaders of the G7 and the EU recognized that the draft US 28-point plan for peace in Ukraine “includes important elements that will be essential for a just and lasting peace” but also underlined that the draft represents a basis that will require further work. “We stand ready to commit to ensuring that future peace is sustainable,” they wrote in an official statement. Reaffirming their willingness to work on peace, they emphasized the principle that «borders must not be changed by force. We are also concerned about the proposed limitations on the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which would make Ukraine vulnerable to future attacks.” In the afternoon, again on the sidelines of the G20 work, the Ukrainian crisis was also the subject of a bilateral summit between the Italian Prime Minister and the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
The peace plan proposed by the US will therefore be explored in detail today in a meeting in Geneva between the national security advisors of the French, German and British heads of state and government with their American and Ukrainian counterparts. For Italy, the diplomatic advisor to the Prime Minister, Fabrizio Saggio, will participate. However, on Monday, when the EU-African Union summit is scheduled to take place in Luanda, Angola, a special meeting of EU leaders on Ukraine will also be held. Time is running out.