Drafted 23 March, updated 3 July 2025
Above : Vladimir Medinsky, the Kremlin’s “negotiator”. In the background : Stalin, whose history has been rehabilitated by Vladimir Putin.
“An obscene theatre for the benefit of the gonzo. Many of whom, unfortunately, live in Italy. With his phone calls, Trump is not negotiating peace, but facilitating the surrender of Ukraine. The annexation of occupied territories to Russia, the disarmament of Kiev, the replacement of Zelensky by a Putin puppet and the sharing out of the spoils of war.
A surrender that will allow Russia, which has been on the verge of collapse for years, to reorganise itself in view of the next invasion, which will have the same genocidal and imperialist objectives, until the final loss of Ukraine’s sovereignty.
Does it suit the US, or at least the oligarchy that governs it? Granting Putin everything he demands, and treating major trading partners as enemies, seems far from far-sighted. But in the extremist vision of Trump and his acolytes, the fall of Ukraine is instrumental to the disintegration of Europe, the decline of liberal democracy and the rise of authoritarianism also on the old continent.
Increasingly, we seem to observe the birth of a global alliance against democracy, ready to sacrifice everything, even the economy, to defeat the enemy. In the knowledge that the political choices will not then be put to the voters’ judgement.
Returning to the theatrics of the phone call, its only result was the announcement of a halt to attacks on energy infrastructure. A few minutes later, Russia bombed an energy infrastructure. An instantaneous breach of the truce that did not stop our Prime Minister from presenting the winks between Putin and Trump as a dialogue for a ‘just peace’.
No, the only just peace is one that unconditionally restores and preserves the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the attacked state, with the withdrawal from the occupied territories and the payment of reparations by the state that triggered the war. One would not expect the leader of one of the world’s most ignorant right-wingers to share such a truism. What is surprising is the positioning of a considerable chunk of Italy’s democratic forces. The shameless fascism of the Russian and American autocracies, their expansionist aims, familiarity with war crimes, censorship and repression of dissent make it paradoxical for leaders, parties and civil society representatives professing to be democratic or left-wing to support the surrender of Ukraine (don’t call it peace, please).
Nobody likes to spend on arms, it is understandable. Anyone would like to allocate public resources to other needs – there are even those who prefer to use them to finance electoral bonuses such as the superbonus. But to advocate measures to make Europe capable of defending itself, now that the US umbrella no longer exists, is not to be a warmonger. Nor is it to be horrified at the atrocities of a war being waged at our doorstep …”
Fabio Sabatini
