The Times - UK (2022-05-28)

the times | Saturday May 28 2022 2GM 45

The Italian hard-right champion

Giorgia Meloni has defended the

supply of arms to Ukraine, creating a

rift with fellow populist politicians in

her country but furthering her chances

of becoming prime minister next year.

As Italian howitzers start to show up

on the battlefields of Donbas, Meloni

threw her weight behind the consign-

ment, despite being a former admirer of

President Putin.

“I am backing this because Italy

should not abandon its international

allies,” she told The Times. “I think Italy

should show it is a faithful, solid and

credible ally, above and beyond the

Ukrainian cause, which I support.”

Pushed through parliament in

March by the prime minister Mario

Draghi, the dispatch of artillery and

anti-tank weapons has been opposed

by the populist Five Star and League

parties, even though they are members

of his coalition.

Both parties have former ties with

Putin’s United Russia party and officials

defended his annexation of Crimea in

2014. Meloni has also voiced admira-
      tion for the Russian leader. In 2015 she
      said she preferred him to Matteo Renzi,
      the prime minister at the time, and that
      he had “much clearer ideas than Renzi
      on foreign policy and on the defence of
      his national interests”. In 2018 she
      congratulated Putin via social media on
      his re-election as president, claiming:
      “The will of the people in these Russian
      elections appears unmistakable.”
      Unlike her fellow populists, however,
      Meloni, 45, has now backed the ship-
      ments to Ukraine, even though her
      party, Brothers of Italy, is in opposition
      to the government.
      Despite polls showing half of Italians
      do not support the shipments, Meloni’s
      approval ratings continue to rise. Her
      party now leads the polls on about 22
      per cent while Matteo Salvini’s League
      has sunk to about 16 per cent from the

Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany has

accused Olaf Scholz of abandoning

Kyiv by failing to supply heavy

weapons, including 100 Marder infan-

try fighting vehicles.

“Militarily, Ukraine is simply being

left in the lurch by Berlin,” Andrij

Melnyk told Bild. He said the German

chancellor had failed to outline con-

crete steps to help his nation in a speech

at the World Economic Forum in Da-

vos on Thursday. Scholz, he added,

“lacks leadership and courage”.

Three weeks ago Melnyk, 46, called

Scholz a “sulky sausage” for declining

to visit Kyiv after President Steinmeier

of Germany was disinvited from a trip

because of his past dealings with Russia.

Kyiv envoy: Berlin left us

in lurch on arms supplies

His latest comments add to the pres-

sure on Scholz at home and abroad over

Germany’s failure to supply the heavy

weapons it has promised.

President Duda of Poland said this

week he was “very disappointed” that

Germany had so far failed to honour a

swap deal to send Poland Leopard 2

tanks to replace Soviet-era T-72s that

the Polish military had transferred to

Ukraine.

Officials in Berlin said Nato coun-

tries were focusing on providing

Ukraine with Soviet-type weapons

with which its forces are familiar and

can therefore deploy rapidly. Some

allies also want to avoid being drawn

into the war with potentially game-

changing western weapons that could

provoke President Putin into declaring

them combatants, officials said.

Germany

David Crossland Berlin

Fatal police delays

in Texas school

shootings exposed

Page 48

Female hermits

want to be together

... and alone
Page 47

Hard right has no

place backing Putin,

says populist leader

towering 34 per cent of votes it received

in the 2019 European parliamentary

elections.

Salvini, Meloni and the former prime

minister Silvio Berlusconi plan to unite

in a coalition for elections in 2023 when

Draghi will step down. Based on

present polls they will win, with Meloni

earning the right to be prime minister.

Her views on sending arms could win

her approval where she also needs it,

among Italy’s political establishment

and in governments around Europe.

“She is betting it will position her as a

more reliable partner for the pro-US,

pro-Nato establishment, one that can

govern Italy,” said Lorenzo Pregliasco,

director of the polling firm You Trend.

Respectability in Europe would be

tempered by her admiration for Viktor

Orban, the prime minister of Hungary,

and her claim that shadowy globalists

are sending migrants to Italy to dilute

its national culture — an idea on par

with the Great Replacement theory

touted by Republicans in America. Her

ideas could go mainstream in Italy next

year if she wins, just as populism is writ-

ten off in Europe thanks to President

Macron’s defeat of Marine Le Pen in

France in April and the sense of unity

within the EU as it stands up to Russia.

Victory would mark a turnaround for

Meloni, whose party has been stigma-

tised for the fascist sympathies of some

supporters. At a party congress this

month, she rolled her eyes at these “ri-

diculous” claims. Days later, however,

to mark the end of the congress, party

officials from Naples posted photos of

themselves celebrating in a Milanese

restaurant in which the walls are

covered with pictures of Mussolini.

Italy

Tom Kington Rome

Giorgia Meloni said

that “Italy should

not abandon its

international allies”

Popasna and are now
applying the full
weight of their
superiority in quantity
of artillery, if not
quality, to Ukrainian
lines. The Ukrainians
are putting American
M777 howitzers to
good use: they can fire
ten miles farther than
the standard Russian
models, but only a
handful have arrived
at the front so far.
Those were too late
to save Popasna and
may be too late to save
the rest of this pocket,
which has become the
key battleground of
this second phase of
the war, one in which
the Russians are more

organised than in the

attacks on Kyiv and

Kharkiv.

There have been

reports of some

Ukrainian battalions

pulling back before

they can be

surrounded. “It’s very

dangerous,” said

Maksym Lutsyk, 19, a

soldier who was about

to return to

Severodonetsk after a

brief break from the

front. “The Russians

are using drones to see

the situation and the

vehicles and then use

artillery to shoot at

us.”

Some soldiers from

the volunteer reserve

force have refused to

fight on, saying they

are too poorly

equipped.

Lutsyk said his

morale was high,

however, and he had

no qualms about

returning. “If we are

encircled we will hold

on until someone

brings help,” he said.

At least 1,500 people

have been killed in

Severodonetsk. About

12,000 remain in the

city, once home to

100,000 people.

The Russian

successes on the front

have deepened a split

in Europe. Some

countries, like Britain,

want to support

Ukraine’s fight to the

end, until it has

liberated territory lost

since February as well

as in 2014; others

believe that at some

point a compromise

must be sought.

Inside Zelensky’s home

town, Magazine

ILLIA PONOMARENKO; RICK MAVE/SOPA IMAGES/SHUTTERSTOCK; ALEXEY FURMAN/GETTY IMAGES

Luhansk

Donetsk

Izyum

Popasna

LUHANSK

UKRAINE

RUSSIA

50 miles

Severodonetsk

Sources: Institute for the Study of War

and AEI’s Critical Threats Project.

DODOONETSK

Russian-

held territory

Russian

advance

Ukrainian

counter-

offensive

Intense

fighting in

past 24 hours

A Ukrainian artilleryman

appears unperturbed by

the rockets he is firing in

an image shared by a

local journalist; special

forces stop to eat in

Bakhmut, Donetsk, under

pressure from Russian

forces; an aerial image

shows the damage

inflicted on Novoselivka,

a village near Chernihiv

that was an early target

of the Russian forces