Meloni proposes 24-hour clause in security plan, NATO would be required to help Ukraine in a day if Russia resumes attacks

 ROME - After the authorship of the mutual aid proposal for Kiev in the wake of Article 5 of the Atlantic Treaty was registered in the living room of the White House, Giorgia Meloni definitively commits, leaving Rome to formalise the agreement itself, reports Il Messaggero.

 The email was sent yesterday afternoon from the offices of Palazzo Chigi, even though the prime minister was absent, having flown to Puglia for the remainder of her holidays to spend with her daughter Ginevra after a period disrupted by sudden international commitments.

 Ultimately, it will be Marco Rubio, head of the task force on security guarantees for Ukraine, who will say whether the formula put down on paper by Italy, recently dusted off and put back on the table by the USA, works as it was devised. That is, as a sort of article 5-light, which follows the NATO treaty but is open exclusively to those who are in it, strengthened by the fact that the States have already said they are in the game.

 In practical terms this means that if the white flag is raised, those who signed the agreement will have 24 hours to respond to Moscow if the Kremlin violates the pacts. “A solid security guarantee capable of revealing any Russian bluffs”, explains Zona Bianca host Giovanbattista Fazzolari.

 The proposal takes the form of an international treaty to be signed by the countries that decide to adhere to the guarantees for peace. “It will take the signature of the contracting governments, then each state will have to proceed according to internal rules. For Italy, a passage and a parliamentary vote will be needed”, executive sources explain, assuring that it will not take biblical times to set up the system. “If there is the will, everything can be done”. Still doubts among parties persist - particularly about whether all parties agree.

 On Wednesday, during diplomatic discussions, the attention shifted to possible Zelensky-Putin bilateral, which could undermine the three-way negotiations wanted by Trump in his self-appointed role of arbiter and mediator. “Face-to-face is gaining traction and bypassing the other format but if so, it is easier to skip the bench,” explain sources working on the dossier. Fear circulates from capital to capital, especially following the words of Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister: “there is no point in discussing security without us.”

 While Lavrov attacks the EU and the “rather clumsy and generally unethical attempts to change the position of the Trump administration”, Dmitry Medvedev, another Putin loyalist, makes it clear that Russia will not accept “any NATO troop presence in Ukraine under the guise of peacekeepers”. In reality, it is not NATO that is being discussed, but rather which countries would be willing to deploy boots on the ground. Not the USA and not Italy, which fears that the option to put “soldiers on the ground” could scupper negotiations which, however tight, are still fragile and preliminary.

 Meanwhile, the idea of Budapest being the site of possible peace talks is gradually losing ground: “it is difficult for Zelensky to accept that Orbàn is the master of the house, a thorn in the side of the EU when it comes to reaching out to Kiev”, explain the same sources. “I would try to find another place”, warns Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on X, recalling the guarantees ignored in 1994. And as Vienna steps forward, the Geneva option comes back as a possible venue.

 But apart from the location, the priority is “to provide leverage for Zelensky to go to his people and say: ‘This is what we will get from the agreement’”, underlines the US special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, well aware that the transfer of territories is the bitter pill to swallow for the leader in camouflage and his people. “Land for peace, this is where the ship is at risk of running aground before it has even left port...”, they confirm from Palazzo Chigi.

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