According to its foreign minister, Italy has developed a plan for a peace solution in the Ukraine war. “We now need a diplomatic counter-offensive,” said Luigi Di Maio in an interview with the newspaper “La Stampa”. The 35-year-old criticized that only individual states were currently trying to mediate.

Now they want to get all relevant international organizations to cooperate. A first goal is to achieve local pauses in fighting, followed by a ceasefire, work on neutrality and finally a peace agreement.

The plan was developed by diplomats and the Italian government and presented to the negotiators of the seven most important industrialized nations (G7), Di Maio said. He also spoke to UN Secretary-General António Guterres. The UN, EU and OSCE should involve other countries like Turkey and India as the main working group.

However, Di Maio was somewhat pessimistic about the current situation in negotiations with Russia: “I don’t want to appear like a doomsayer, but I don’t see any negotiations at any table,” he said. “Individual actions will not persuade Vladimir Putin to negotiate.”