Meloni and Zelensky criticise Trump's Russian diesel deal as a win for Putin

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told parliament on Wednesday that the United States' agreement to buy Russian diesel is a very risky choice that legitimises Moscow while its bombs are still falling on Ukrainian cities, ANSA and Euronews reported. She said the deal amounts to an implicit weakening of the sanctions lever that the US and others have used to try to push President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table.

President Volodymyr Zelensky, in London for meetings with Britain's prime minister and King Charles III, told broadcaster Piers Morgan that the diesel deal was a tactical victory for Putin, saying "now Putin is laughing" because Moscow was winning concessions from Washington without any battlefield breakthroughs, Kyiv Post reported. Zelensky also criticised restrictions affecting the Starlink satellite network, which he said had cost Ukrainian lives by limiting access to data on incoming Russian missiles.

Zelensky thanked Meloni on social media for "understanding who the aggressor is", Euronews reported. Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova dismissed Meloni's criticism, telling Italian media the diesel deal "is none of her business".

Meloni said Putin was "provoking Europe" to divert attention from the war and find a new enemy, and repeated that Italy's support for Ukraine "does not change". She called for the EU to speak with a single voice and proposed that the Twenty-Seven agree on a special envoy with a mandate from all of them, rather than leave Ukraine diplomacy to France, Germany and Britain acting alone in the so-called E3 format, ANSA reported.

The remarks exposed divisions within Meloni's own governing coalition. Deputy Prime Minister and League leader Matteo Salvini said Italy "cannot go on indefinitely sending billions, not as loans but as gifts" to Ukraine, and noted that other EU states, including Belgium and Spain, buy energy and gas from Russia, Euronews reported.