Kyiv seeks more information about Meloni proposal for security guarantees

Kyiv: Kyiv said on Wednesday it was asking Italy for more information about a proposal by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to extend NATO's mutual defence umbrella to Ukraine without offering it alliance membership or sending peacekeeping troops.

Ukraine is seeking security guarantees from its Western allies ahead of any peace talks to end Russia's invasion. It wants NATO membership but the United States under President Donald Trump has rejected this.

Britain, France and other countries are also drawing up plans to deploy European troops to safeguard a potential ceasefire under a future peace deal. Russia opposes such plans, but Trump has said he believes Moscow might agree.

Meloni, leader of a far-right nationalist party in Italy, is an ally of Trump but has remained a strong public supporter of Ukraine.

On the sidelines of an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, she said extending NATO's Article 5 collective security agreement would be a more "lasting solution" than sending European peacekeepers or granting Kyiv full membership.

Article 5 of NATO's founding treaty requires all alliance members to consider an attack on any of them to be an attack on all.

"We welcome this statement as part of the discussion on providing Ukraine with long-term security guarantees and ensuring security and peace in general," Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said at a briefing in Kyiv.

"As for this proposal specifically, we are in contact with our Italian colleagues to clarify the specifics of this proposal," Tykhyi said, adding that Ukraine still wants its partners to send troop contingents as part of any peace effort.

Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna told Ukrainian television on Friday that Meloni's idea was "very pragmatic".

Following a massive Russian air strike on Ukraine's energy system on Friday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy repeated a call made earlier this week for a truce covering air and sea, though not ground troops, as a first step toward peace.