Amb. Formosa, 'no one has more desire for peace than Ukraine'

(ANSA) - ROMA, 17 DIC - "No one has a greater desire for peace than Ukraine, which suffers the effects of aggression on a daily basis in terms of bombardments that hit where the population suffers the most: the systematic reduction of critical and energy infrastructures by depriving the population of the possibility of having electricity during the winter period, with the consequences that this entails in terms of survival capacity, as well as quality of life. And so, with this in mind, there is hope on the part of the Ukrainian population and leadership that with the start of the Trump presidency, through his decision-making, we can actually get a negotiating dynamic going'. Italy's ambassador to Ukraine, Carlo Formosa, told ANSA on the sidelines of the second day of the States General of Diplomacy at the Farnesina. "We will have to see what will emerge from the new approach, we are now in a phase of defining what it could be, which will naturally also see the participation of all the allies, including Europe, in imagining what could then be a final accommodation," Formosa added.
    The ambassador emphasised Italy's all-round commitment to supporting Ukraine: "Italy is certainly a protagonist, not only in what is the principle that has always inspired our partnership with the country, i.e. support from a political and military point of view, but also from the point of view of emergency support and cooperation to alleviate precisely from these sufferings that cause such a devastating conflict in Ukraine in all its various components. We have a very important cooperation programme: in this latest programme alone, 140 million have been allocated, which we are already disbursing. Just yesterday it was decided in a joint committee to disburse 13 million precisely to the energy sector to make a contribution that is in any case in addition to many other initiatives that will give the sense of a very profiled presence of Italy both in terms of emergency and reconstruction," he explained. "A reconstruction that will then have its greatest moment in the organisation in Rome of the conference on reconstruction next July, with a series of approaching stages that, among other things, will allow Italy to have the ability to direct what will then be the type of support that will characterise aid to Ukraine on the basis of the conditions that will exist at that time. In this there is not only cooperation, but the definition of a whole series of financial instruments and above all there is also our ability to accompany Ukraine in that process of internal reforms that determines the condition for the path to EU membership, and to have a reassuring internal order for the viability of both investment and trade,' he stressed.