Rome is preparing to welcome Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky among maximum security measures, visiting Italy for the first time since the beginning of the Russian invasion. The leader, for a year now in sweatshirt and camouflage, will see President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. And he will go to Pope Francis, in the midst of that "mission of peace" initiated by the Vatican but whose contours are still completely reserved. Armored all the routes with no fly zone and sharpshooters, times and movements of the agenda have not yet been made official for obvious security reasons.
The Holy See itself continues to speak of a "possible" meeting, also because one word too many or a misunderstood signal would be enough to hinder any attempt to open a channel of dialogue between Kiev and Moscow. Citing Vatican sources, the Russian news agency Tass pointed out that the eventual meeting between Zelensky and the Pope "is not directly linked" to the mission announced by the Pontiff on the return flight from Hungary in recent days. "It is a special initiative and for now it remains non-public," the Vatican source told the Moscow news agency, stressing that Zelensky requested to be received by Francis "only a few days ago" and that the Pope usually meets heads of state who request it on the occasion of their visits to the Italian capital. That everything was born in recent days is also confirmed by the absence from the Holy See of the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, engaged as planned in the celebrations of May 13 in Fatima, Portugal. There will instead be Monsignor Paul Richard Gallagher, secretary for Relations with States, who was on a mission in Ukraine a year ago, although it is not entirely excluded that Parolin may have time to return.
On the bilateral front, Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani will welcome Zelensky to Ciampino and accompany him to the Quirinale, where he will be received by Sergio Mattarella returning from Norway, where he reiterated the urgency of "countering Russia's policy of aggressiveness" together with that of seeking "a peace landing". It was the head of state himself who often intervened in the last year to explain to Italian public opinion - increasingly divided - the need to support Ukraine in the war against the invader also by sending weapons. The issue of supplies will be on the table of the meeting between the Ukrainian leader and Meloni, the second in less than three months after the Prime Minister's visit to Kiev on the eve of the first anniversary of the Russian attack. While waiting for the dispatch of the Samp-T air defense system - for which Italy has trained a group of Ukrainian military - it is possible that Zelensky will reiterate from Rome the request to Western partners for fighter aircraft. After a face-to-face meeting of about half an hour with Meloni, the meeting will then be extended to the two delegations.
There will be no other deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini: "I am neither prime minister nor foreign minister", specified the League leader himself, however giving his availability as Minister of Infrastructure to work for reconstruction. "There are Italian companies that can't wait to make their contribution," Salvini added: 600 showed interest in the recent Conference for the reconstruction of Ukraine on April 26 at EUR.
Zelensky will conclude his day in Rome with a live TV interview on Bruno Vespa's Porta a Porta broadcast, before flying to Germany. Berlin has also tightened its security measures, without officially confirming the imminent visit of the Ukrainian president who, according to press rumors, will be received on Sunday morning by Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. He then went to Aachen to receive the Charlemagne Prize awarded this year to the Ukrainian people and their president.
