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Italy’s former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi votes in Sunday’s regional elections in Lombardy. Shortly thereafter, he makes a critical statement about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi.
1 of 2 Photo: Ermes Beltrami/AP/TT
– Me? Talk to Zelensky?
Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi doesn’t seem to have much left for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
In connection with Sunday’s local elections in Italian Lombardy, the 86-year-old Berlusconi was asked about this week’s EU summit in Brussels, when the country’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the Ukrainian president openly showed each other mutual appreciation.
– I had never gone there, said Berlusconi, whose party Forza Italia is part of Meloni’s government coalition, about the Brussels meeting.
– It would be enough for him (Zelenskyj) to stop attacking the two autonomous republics in Donbass. Then all this would not have happened. Therefore, my assessment is that this gentleman’s behavior is very, very negative, he continued.
Berlusconi and Russian President Vladimir Putin were close friends during their former prime ministership.
In September last year, Berlusconi caused headlines when he claimed that Putin was “pressured by his own population and by the pro-Russian forces in the Donbass” to invade Ukraine.
After Berlusconi’s outcome on Sunday, Georgia Meloni stated via her office her continued “strong support” towards Kiev.