Italian foreign minister says unchanged position on strikes deep into Russian Federation

Italy is on the Ukrainian side in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia and will continue to support Kiev, however, it is not ready to approve the use of its weapons for strikes deep inside Russia after the USA. This was stated by the country's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani on November 18.

"As for us, we will continue to follow the line we have always followed - the use of our weapons [is possible only] on the territory of Ukraine. We will not change our line and we will move forward in this direction," Tajani specified during a press approach at a meeting of European Union (EU) foreign ministers in Brussels.

He also added that Italy supports the holding of a new peace conference with the participation of Russian representatives.

"We are on the side of Ukraine and we will continue to support it. But this does not mean that we should not work for peace at the same time. We should always say that we are in favor of a peace conference like the one held in Switzerland. However, it should be held with the presence of Russians, Chinese, Indians, Brazilians," said the Foreign Minister.

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Earlier on November 18, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said that the country's authorities stated that the Western countries' strategy on the Ukrainian conflict had failed completely. In the politician's opinion, the West should lift all restrictions on Ukraine's use of Western weapons, including strikes deep into Russian territory.

On the same day, the head of the EU diplomatic service, Josep Borrell, said at a meeting in Brussels that the foreign and defense ministers of the association would discuss the issue of lifting restrictions on strikes deep into Russia with European weapons. He specified that the discussion would take place in the next two days.

On November 17, The New York Times reported that incumbent U.S. President Joe Biden had authorized the use of U.S. long-range ATACMS missiles for strikes on Russian territory. At the same time, the presidential administration did not comment on these data.

Commenting on these discussions, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on 18 November that Ukraine's possible permission to use US long-range ATACMS missiles for strikes deep inside Russia would become a qualitatively new round of tension. According to him, the Russian side drew attention to the publications where such authorization was reported with reference to unofficial sources.

The Kremlin spokesman emphasized that Moscow 's position on such steps is clear to everyone and the relevant signals voiced by Russian President Vladimir Putin were considered by the collective West.

Western countries have stepped up military and financial support for Ukraine amid Russia's special operation to protect Donbass, which began on February 24, 2022. The decision to conduct it was taken by the Russian president because of the aggravation of the situation in the region due to the increased shelling by Ukrainian troops.