Biden meets Italian PM; hails Italy's efforts in countering Putin's brutality in Ukraine

Amid the ravaging war between Russia and Ukraine, US President Joe Biden and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi held a meeting on Tuesday, where POTUS applauded Rome's action against the "brutality of the Russian President" in Ukraine. According to the statement released by the White House, both leaders affirmed that the bond between the US and Italy deepened further after the commencement of Vladimir Putin's "special military operation". "The ties between our two countries have always been very strong. And, if anything, this war in Ukraine made them stronger," Draghi said. "If Putin ever thought that he could divide us, he failed. There’s no question about that," he added.  

According to Draghi, both the US and Italy have done enough to support Ukraine and highlighted how both countries fulfilled almost all requests of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He stressed that the people in Italy want to end the ongoing massacre in order to bring peace to the region. "We stand together in condemning the invasion of Ukraine, in sanctioning Russia, and in helping Ukraine, as President Zelenskyy is asking us to do. But I have to tell you that in Italy and in Europe now, people want to put an end to these massacres — to these massacres, to this violence, this butchery that’s happening. And people think about what we can do to bring peace," said Draghi.   

Biden appreciates Italy's effort in bringing NATO and the EU in lockstep

Notably, the Italian Prime Minister was in the White House on Tuesday where he met Biden and other US leaders. Appreciating Italy's effort against Putin's 'unlawful' action against Ukraine, Biden called Rome one of the closest allies the US had in responding to (inaudible) brutality of Putin. "And I just think that your cooperation — sometimes at a greater cost to others to take on Putin and what’s going on in Ukraine has been really incredible," he said while hailing Italy's effort from the very beginning to bring NATO and the EU in lockstep. He slammed Putin for believing that he could split Italy and the US. 

Image: @POTUS/Twitter