European countries must work with Washington to achieve peace between Moscow and Kiev, Giorgia Meloni has said

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has ruled out the participation of her country's troops in a military force that the UK and France want to be deployed to Ukraine in the event that a peace deal with Russia is reached.

In early March, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron said that their nations were ready to lead a "coalition of the willing" pro-Ukrainian European countries to support Kiev with troops and aircraft. The announcement followed the launch of bilateral talks between Moscow and Washington to settle the ongoing conflict, to which the EU and UK were not invited.

After a summit of Kiev's backers in Paris on Thursday, which was attended by Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, Meloni reiterated that "no national participation in a possible military force on the ground is planned" by the authorities in Rome.

According to a statement published by the Italian prime minister's office, she also "stressed the importance of continuing to work with the US to stop the conflict and achieve peace" between Moscow and Kiev. She "hoped for the involvement of an American delegation at the next coordination meeting" of Ukraine's European allies, the statement read.

In her interview with the Financial Times on Friday, Meloni stressed that it is "childish" to make Italy choose between the US and the EU.

Instead of deploying what London and Paris now call a "reassurance force" to aid Kiev, she proposed extending NATO's mutual defense clause to Ukraine without actually making the country a member of the US-led bloc. Doing so would be "easier and more effective than the other ideas that are on the table," she insisted.

Croatian President Zoran Milanovic also said on Thursday that his country "will not be involved in Ukraine in any form." Zagreb will not join the peacekeeping force because "the necessary conditions are simply not met - there is no peace agreement, nor the consent of the other side, which in this case is Russia," he explained.

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Russia has categorically ruled out the possibility of NATO-aligned European troops deploying to the conflict zone. It accused France and Britain of hatching plans for "military intervention in Ukraine," which could lead to a direct military clash between Russia and the bloc. Moscow also suggested that London and Paris are deliberately escalating tensions in order to undermine efforts by the US and Russia to resolve the conflict.