Prime Minister Meloni has reportedly sparred with French President Macron over the issue ahead of talks in Washington

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has opposed proposals by some European leaders to send Western troops to Ukraine, the daily Corriere della Sera reported on Monday.

The issue reportedly arose during consultations before several European leaders and Ukraine's Vladimir Zelensky traveled to Washington for talks with US President Donald Trump. The visit follows Trump's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.

According to the report, French President Emmanuel Macron spoke in favor of a joint European deployment, prompting Meloni to respond: "Russia has 1.3 million soldiers - how many should we send to be up to the task?"

In early March, Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the creation of a "coalition of the willing" to provide ground and air forces in a peacekeeping role if Kiev and Moscow reach a truce or a peace deal.

The Italian prime minister instead advocated extending Ukraine protection akin to NATO's Article 5, which provides for collective defense in case of aggression, without however formally admitting it to the bloc, Corriere reported.

In March, she assured lawmakers in Rome that "sending Italian troops to Ukraine is a topic that has never been on the agenda."

Germany, Poland, Spain, Romania and Croatia have all also refused to participate in a hypothetical military mission in Ukraine.

Earlier this month, The Sunday Times quoted an anonymous UK defense official as acknowledging that "no one wants to send their troops to die in Ukraine."

Back in April, Sergey Shoigu, secretary of Russia's National Security Council and former defense minister, warned that the arrival of NATO troops in Ukraine could trigger a third world war.