Zelensky in Rome: "The war in Ukraine can end in 2025". The president ready for a ceasefire along the current line
https://www.corriere.it/esteri/24_ottobre_09/zelensky-roma-meloni-guerra-da2c18e7-937e-41d5-ac18-91045b3b7xlk.shtml
Zelensky and Meloni's embrace in New York on the sidelines of the last UN assembly last September
The Ukrainian leader from Meloni and in European capitals. Objective: guarantees for entry into the Union. In exchange for some commitments he would be ready for a ceasefire along the current line.
For the second time in a month, Volodymyr Zelensky is coming to Italy and for the second time he will see Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The Ukrainian president accepted the invitation to Rome this evening, when it seemed that the meeting between NATO leaders would then be held in Ramstein on Saturday.
That summit was canceled because Hurricane Milton is keeping Joe Biden stuck in America, so the restricted meeting that the leaders of the United States, Great Britain, France and Germany would have held with their colleague in Kiev also skips.
But Zelensky still took advantage of his European trip, which began yesterday in Dubrovnik meeting the governments of Southeast Europe, for a tour of the main capitals: today he will be in Paris at the Elysée and then at Villa Doria Pamphilj with Meloni, tomorrow at the Vatican at Pope Francis and then in Berlin. He will surely also join the premier Keir Starmer in London.
Zelensky's so much activism reflects his belief that now is the time to look for a way out that does not leave Ukraine on its knees and exposed to new aggression from Russia in the future. «In October, November and December we have a real chance to push the situation towards peace and lasting stability — the Ukrainian president wrote yesterday on X —. The situation on the ground creates an opportunity for decisive action to end the war no later than 2025». These words of Zelensky, of course, must be interpreted. He first knows that September, as documented by the magazine Grand Continent, was the month of greatest territorial losses for Ukraine since the first half of 2022: at least 468 square kilometers conquered by Moscow at the cost of about a thousand Russian losses per day, between deaths and injuries.