Conte puts Putin and Zelensky on the same level: “Both are bombing civilians.” Sensi (PD): “Shameful”

It was Giuseppe Conte who reignited passions across the political spectrum regarding the Kyiv issue. “Putin, having carried out a criminal act of aggression, is bombing every day, just as Zelensky has also been bombing Russian territory for some time now,” said the M5S leader last night on the programme ‘Porta a Porta’ on Rai Uno. “I’m not defending Putin, but we cannot simply accept that Zelensky’s side is adopting a purely defensive stance, because, unfortunately, they too have for some time now been carrying out various attacks and bombings that have affected civilians. And we could draw up a long list of those as well. It is an ongoing war,” he continued. “The question is: how do we get out of it? The only option we have is to facilitate negotiations, whilst being careful, because the outcome of negotiations also depends on how you frame them. We must insist that the BRICS countries, first and foremost China, also get involved. China offered to mediate right from the start,” Conte added. And China wields considerable influence over Russia. Without China’s support, Russia could not have sustained all this.”

The leader of the M5S denied that his party’s position was to abandon Ukraine to its own devices, before going on to refer to opinion polls suggesting that “the overwhelming majority of Ukrainians also want negotiations. We believe that, after four years of deaths, destruction and objective hardships that are increasing ever more, the best course of action is – he reiterated – to initiate a shift towards negotiations”. 

“The list of expenditure required to sustain the war in Ukraine – not just the military aspect, but the humanitarian aspects as well – is endless,” concluded Conte. “And right now, Zelenskyy continues to ask for billions and billions that aren’t reaching him. So I say: let’s put an end to this charade.”

These remarks drew a harsh response from Filippo Sensi, a PD senator and a leading figure in the party’s reformist wing. “I hear someone who would like to lead the centre-left saying that Zelensky and Putin are on the same level. It’s a disgrace beyond words, which needs no comment,” he wrote on X.

Carlo Calenda shares this view, although he is outside the centre-left alliance: “It is repugnant that Conte is putting Putin and Zelensky on the same level,” wrote the leader of Azione on social media. “I don’t know how anyone can think of allying themselves with these people and still call themselves progressives or pro-Europeans. What hypocrisy.”  

Conte’s remarks add to a long list of statements in which the leader of the M5S has gradually made his position on the conflict in Ukraine clearer. Whilst at the +Europa convention in March he emphasised the need not to buy Russian gas because “Russian aggression must absolutely be sanctioned” with “economic and financial sanctions”, speaking to the audience gathered in Naples on 8 July he came out with this: “Do you realise they’re fabricating a Russian threat to convince us that we must arm ourselves to the teeth? They don’t tell you these things; I’m telling you.” This culminated at the Festa del Fatto Quotidiano in September, where he said that on the subject of Ukraine, “it is clear that we will have to set out some firm principles in advance, because we cannot have a situation where Schlein or another candidate wins tomorrow morning and then we start sending weapons galore to Kyiv, fuelling a military escalation that is leading us towards a third world war day by day”, said the former prime minister.