Italy won't abandon you, Di Maio tells Zelensky

(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 25 - Italy won't abandon Ukraine in its resistance to the six-month-long Russian invasion, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio told Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelensky on a visit to Kyiv Thursday.
    "Italy will not abandon the Ukrainian people," the foreign minister told the president.
    Di Maio added that it was essential to seek a diplomatic path "to restore peace and defend democracy".
    During his visit Di Maio visited Irpin, not far from Kyiv, one of the towns and villages where alleged evidence was found of alleged Russian war crimes, and said there were some in Italy "who still deny Russian crimes.
    "Here in Iprin there is a destroyed city, razed to the ground, and in Italy there are those who still deny the acts that happened on the part of Russian troops, doing Putin's work." He said "death and cruelty. Cities destroyed, razed to the ground: this is the truth. The war is real, look at these images. Those who minimize are accomplices".
    Russian aggression on Ukraine has been "brutal" and Kyiv's resistance to the invasion is legitimate, President Sergio Mattarella said in a message to President Zelensky on its national day of independence on Wednesday.
    Outgoing Premier Mario Draghi said on Ukraine Wednesday that a nuclear disaster must be averted, referring to fighting at the Zaporizhzhia power plant and echoing Pope Francis at his general audience earlier in the day. (ANSA).