On Monday, President Sergio Mattarella once again condemned the war that Russia has waged on its neighbour Ukraine, blasting it as “deplorable”.
“A deplorable war, which the Russian Federation waged after unacceptably claiming the right to aggression, leaves a trail of death every day, destruction and hatred that pollutes every field of civil activity and relations,” Mattarella said during a meeting with recipients of the ‘knight of labour’ honour.
“Peace is urgent and necessary.
“The path to build it stems from a re-establishment of the truth, of international law, of the freedom of the Ukrainian people.”
The head of State said that Europe was “a target of this war”.
“The principles of civilization, the values affirmed as the response of the (European) peoples to the barbarism of the Second World War and the dictatorships that provoked it, have been challenged,” he said.
“This is part of the reason why Europe is duty-bound to give a united, coherent response.”
Mattarella also called for a response at the EU-level to the energy-price crisis triggered by the war.
“The reasoning of the energy market seems to create obstacles, but the responsibility of the institutions is precisely that of removing them,” he said.
“Only the European Union has the strength to do this, intervening in the price mechanisms, in the out-of-proportion increases, in the unacceptable speculation that harms citizens.”
