Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy met with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in Kyiv on Tuesday, and pledged to proceed to offer army, monetary and humanitarian help. She additionally mentioned she backed Ukraine’s entry into the European Union and that she would be certain that any peace settlement with Russia can be brokered on Ukraine’s phrases.

“Those that help Ukraine militarily are working for peace,” Ms. Meloni mentioned Tuesday night, throughout a joint information convention with Mr. Zelensky.

Supplying army planes to Ukraine was “not on the desk,” however Italy was contemplating sending extra air protection methods, she added.

Ms. Meloni mentioned that her coalition authorities, which has been in energy since October, had remained “compact” in its help of Ukraine “regardless of some declarations” — a pointed reference to feedback made just lately by one among her allies, the previous prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Final week, Mr. Berlusconi, a longtime buddy of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, blamed Mr. Zelensky for the invasion of Ukraine, saying he ought to have stopped attacking the contested Donbas area, taking part in into Mr. Putin’s false pretext of invading Ukraine to cease a genocide in opposition to ethnic Russians.

One other of Ms. Meloni’s allies, Matteo Salvini, constructed a part of his populist profession out of opposing sanctions on Russia and as soon as mentioned he most well-liked Mr. Putin to his personal president.

Mr. Zelensky, addressing Mr. Berlusconi’s criticism on the information convention on Tuesday, mentioned the previous prime minister by no means needed to cope with tanks arriving in his yard or Russian airstrikes bombarding his residence.

“I feel Mr. Berlusconi has not needed to rise up at three within the morning due to blackouts to start out washing garments, making meals for his youngsters two days prematurely as a result of there might not be energy for the following two, three days, due to the good love of the brotherly Russian folks,” he mentioned, in keeping with Reuters.

Condemning the Russian invasion, Ms. Meloni mentioned on Tuesday that “the destiny of the European Union and Western democracies additionally is dependent upon Ukraine’s victory within the face of those that wish to trample worldwide regulation by power.”

The one peace potential can be one agreed to by Ukraine, she mentioned, and couldn’t contain Ukrainian give up — simply as “a victory of Russia wouldn’t be peace” however “a prelude to the potential invasion of different European states.”

“Ukraine’s pursuits coincide with these of Europe,” she mentioned.

Ms. Meloni arrived in Kyiv by practice earlier on Tuesday, touring from Poland, the place she had met with Polish officers and reiterated Italy’s unwavering help for Ukraine.

It was the primary time in Kyiv for Ms. Meloni, a hard-right chief who up to now has ruled in a far much less vitriolic and ideological — and extra sensible — approach than her detractors had predicted after she took workplace in October.

Ms. Meloni additionally mentioned that Italy was planning to host a global convention in April on the reconstruction of Ukraine.

“Rebuilding a destroyed constructing is an indication of hope,” she mentioned. “And since talking of Ukraine’s reconstruction means betting on the victory of Ukraine. ”

Earlier than assembly with Mr. Zelensky, Ms. Meloni visited Bucha — a suburb of Kyiv the place retreating Russian troopers massacred civilians within the early weeks of the warfare — and Irpin, one of many first Ukrainian cities to be destroyed and liberated. In Irpin, she distributed assist to civilians and signed a Ukrainian flag with the phrases, “At your aspect.”