Meloni hands Putin ultimatum over Ukraine ‘Accept peace or we will force you to surrender’ | World | News

Giorgia Meloni’s leadership in the EU, the G7 summit, and now at the Ukraine peace summit has cemented her role as a leading figure in Europe. The Italian PM took on Vladimir Putin directly during her remarks at the two-day peace summit in Switzerland in a set of defiant remarks. She gave the Russian leader an ultimatum – accept peace now or we will force you to accept it on the battlefield.

In a message to the Kremlin, Ms Meloni said: “To protect Ukraine means to protect the rules-based international order. It’s important to unite all efforts to protect Ukraine. If Russia doesn’t agree to the terms of peace, we will force them to surrender.”

The stance was welcomed by Ukranian politicians. Anton Gerashchenko, a former Ukranian government advisor, called it a “truly powerful statement”.

She was not the only leader praised at the conference. Sweden’s deputy PM Ebba Busch warned her fellow Europeans: “Putin will never stop in Ukraine. This made us reconsider our policy of neutrality, which existed for 200 years.”

President Volodymyr Zelensky told the summit that Kyiv would hold peace talks with Russia tomorrow if Moscow pulls out of all Ukrainian territory.

However, he doubted that President Putin would ever end the war voluntarily. President Zelensky said his Russian counterpart had to be stopped “in any way we can”, whether by military or diplomatic means.

A final document was adopted at the end of the two-day summit which blamed the war’s widespread suffering and destruction on Russia. However, several countries attending including India, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia did not sign it.

More than 90 countries and international organisations attended the summit in the first of its kind about the war in Ukraine.

Russia was not invited, and its biggest supporter China was not present. Russia has described the Swiss event as a waste of time.

Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said that the second peace summit may take place before the US presidential election in November.

The peace summit started a day after Vladimir Putin offered his own ceasefire plan, which demanded Ukraine withdraw troops from four regions that Russia partially occupies and claims to have annexed.

Ms Meloni described it as “propaganda” and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak accused Mr Putin of “spinning a phoney narrative about his willingness to negotiate”.

On Sunday Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Russian leader did not rule out talks with Ukraine, but added that guarantees would be needed to ensure their credibility and Mr Zelensky could not be a participant.

Meanwhile, on the battlefield, Russia has suffered ‘astronomical’ losses on Kharkiv frontline, according to NATO sources.

This was confirmed by Russian soldiers themselves, who released a video this week. Anton Andreev, a Russian soldier from the fifth company of the 1009th regiment, said only 12 out of 100 soldiers in his battalion were still alive.

Decrying the conditions on the frontline, he told the camera: “They just chop us up. We are sent under machine guns, under drones in daylight, like meat. And commanders just shout ‘forward and forward.”