LOS ANGELES (OC).–Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni asked the European Union to dialogue with 73-year-old Russia President Vladimir Putin about ending the Ukraine War. For the past four years the EU shared the the burden of funding proxy war with the Kremlin, all but destroying U.S. and EU-Russian relations. Only since President Donald Trump came to power Jan. 20, 2025 did the U.S. switch gears, refusing to continue subsidizing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Zelensky decided to cozy up the the EU realizing he lost his funding source with the U.S., realizing the Trump wanted to reestablish normal diplomatic relations with the Kremlin. Zelensky took great offense to Trump deciding to restore U.S.-Russian relations, when former President Joe Biden gave him a blank check to battle the Kremlin. Meloni want the EU to stop pandering to Zelensky and bring Putin into the peace process.
Meloni is the first to remind the EU that Russia was once a cooperative energy partner with the EU supplying some 25% of the EU’s natural gas and petroleum needs. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkely thought the relationship with Russia was so important she spent $!2 billion dollars buidking out the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, bring abundant natural gas from Russia into Germany. Since Trump entered the picture, the EU has turned Russia into its mortal enemy, something Meloni says needs to stop. French President Emmanuel Macron has suddenly switched gears, agreeing that to end the Ukraine War the EU must take a more benign position with the Kremlin. Since Trump backed out of funding the Ukraine War, the EU thought they had to take over, claiming that Putin represented a clear-and-present danger to the EU, a position promoted by Zelensky and former President Joe Biden.
No one in the EU has been more hostile toward Putin than Macron, now apparently changing his mind, realizing that Zelensky cannot win the Ukraine War without a pceae settlement. Macron backed Zelensky’s refusal to ced any territory lost during the last four years of war. “ I believe the time has come for Europe and Russia to talk,” Meloni said, saying she agrees with Macron’s new position. Zelensky convinced the EU that he was fighting a war with the Kremlin to defend European democracy, something so preposterous that it’s laughable. Meloni thinks the time has come for the EU to adopt the same position as Trump that seeks to restore normal diplomatic relations. Meloni recalls the EU before the Ukraine War having robust business relation with Putin, defraying the cost of natural gas and petroleum, something plagued recently by high prices.
Zelensky has so demonized Putin the EU couldn’t see the other side that Putin felt the U.S. and EU ignored calls to stop arming Ukraine. Zelensky still asks the EU for more lethal offensive weapons, missiles with long-term range. Zelensky practically begged German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to supply Kiev with long-range Taurus missiles. Merz’s precedessor, former German Chanellor Oklaf Schoz refused to supply Zelensky with Taurus missiles, fearing it could escalate the conflict. Putin told EU officials that any nationl supplying Ukraine with ling-range missiles to hit deep inside the Rusian Federation would be seen as an enemy combatants, subject attack. Zelensky express disgreard for the possibility on escalating the conflict the conflict. Trump also expressed reluctance to supply Zelensky with more deadly long-range missiles.
Zelensky has shot himself in the foot demonizing Putin and Trump, selling Trump out to the EU as no concerned about European Security. Trump wouldn’t let Putin off the hook for one minute if he thought he had his eyes on seizing m ore European territory. Zelensky promoted the false narrative that the Ukraine War defended European democracy. “For, if Europe decides to participate on his negotiation phase, but talks to only one of parties to the conflict, I fear that the positive contribution that it could make will in the end be limited,” Meloni said, urging the EU to take a more balance approach to peace talks. Zelensky will no doubt resent the EU for seeing Putin’s side the the conflict, the only way to end it without showing bias. Trump doesn’t take Putin’s side, he simply wants to negotiate an end to the most destructive war in Europoe since WW II.
Meloni picked up on a change of heart for Macron, wanting, like Trump, to get back to normal Brussels-Kremlin relations. Taking Zelensky’s side has ben counterproductive for the EU, realizing that Zelensky has his own agenda. Trump figured out a long time ago that Zelensky wants cash-and-arms and doesn’t care where he gets it. Once Trump stopped funding Ukraine, Zelensky jumped to the EU, claiming that Trump favored the Russian federation in any future settlement. Zelensky made the EU think that if they didn’t fund his war with the Kremlin, Putin would seize more European territory, something he made up with Putin saying emphatically that he had no intent of expanding Russian territory in Europe. Yet Zelensky kept up the disinformation and propaganda with the intent of convincing the EU to pay for his war. Meloni and Macron are finally waking up.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’ editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
