Berlusconi blames Zelensky for war in Ukraine, suggests 'cash for ceasefire deal'

Al Mayadeen
Mon, 13 Feb 2023 15:59 UTC

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi slams the Ukrainian president for the war in Ukraine.

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Monday that Volodymyr Zelensky is responsible for the war in Ukraine.

"All [Zelensky] had to do was stop attacking the two autonomous republics of the Donbass, and this would not have happened," Berlusconi told Italian media on Sunday evening after voting in Lombardy regional elections, which are set to be the first major political test for Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's rightwing coalition.

"I judge, very, very negatively the behavior of this gentleman," Berlusconi added.

Comment:

He went on to say that if US President Joe Biden threatened to stop sending military and financial aid to Ukraine and asked Zelensky to order a ceasefire in exchange for a "Marshall Plan of six, seven, eight, and nine billion dollars" to rebuild the country, the war could be over.

Comment: Except it's obvious that Zelensky is already acting on the orders of the West; Berlusconi probably knows that, too.

Berlusconi, who served as prime minister for nearly a decade, is now a senator and the leader of the conservative Forza Italia party, which is a junior partner in the ruling coalition.

The former Prime Minister described Putin as one of his closest friends, and he was one of only a few Western politicians included on the Kremlin's end-of-year greeting list.

Berlusconi stated last September in an interview with public broadcaster Rai that the plan behind Russia's attack on Ukraine was for Russian troops to enter "in a week to replace Zelensky's government with a government of decent people."

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, a Forza Italia member and close Berlusconi ally, later said on Twitter that his party had "always stood for Ukraine's independence, on the side of Europe, NATO, and the West.

Comment: RT reports:

Speaking after a regional election in Lombardy, Berlusconi, who leads the Forza Italia party, slammed Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, saying: "If I had been the prime minister, I would never have gone [to talk to him] because we are witnessing the devastation of his country and the slaughter of his soldiers and civilians."

[...]

"Because starting from tomorrow we will no longer give you dollars and we will no longer give you weapons. Only such a thing could convince this gentleman to reach a ceasefire," he said.

Following the remarks, his coalition ally, current PM Giorgia Meloni, appeared to distance herself from Berlusconi, with her office saying that Rome's support for Kiev remains firm.

Italy prime minister irked by 'inappropriate' Zelensky meeting - she wasn't invited

The former Italian prime minster, who served four terms from 1994 to 2011, developed close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He even visited Crimea in 2015 after the peninsula voted in a referendum to join Russia, despite the fact that Western countries refused to recognize the results.

Since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine in February 2022, Berlusconi has urged Moscow and Kiev to agree to a ceasefire, while offering to act as a mediator between the two sides. In November, he claimed that he could "lure" Putin to the negotiating table.

Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said at the time that Moscow welcomes any peace-making efforts, but noted that it would be better to try to "lure" Zelensky.