Silvio Berlusconi blames President Zelensky of Ukraine for Russian invasion

Silvio Berlusconi has claimed President Zelensky forced Russia to invade Ukraine, prompting a threat from the incoming Italian prime minister to throw him out of her coalition.

In a leaked recording of a speech to his MPs this week, Berlusconi can be heard saying that President Putin at first “resisted” responding to Zelensky’s attacks on the Donbas region of Ukraine, but was pressured by “the whole of Russia” to react.

“Zelensky, according to me . . . let it go, I can’t say it,” he added, to applause from members of his Forza Italia party.

Berlusconi is part of a right-wing coalition led by Giorgia Meloni that won elections last month. He is expected to have influence over foreign policy because Antonio Tajani, a senior member of his party, is tipped to become foreign minister.

In another recording leaked this week, Berlusconi — a former prime minister — said he had rekindled his old friendship with Putin and received 20 bottles of vodka and a “very sweet” letter from the Russian leader for his birthday.

The latest tape created further embarrassment for Meloni, 45, the leader of the hard-right Brothers of Italy party. She has repeatedly said that her government will be pro-Nato and will back sanctions on Russia and the sending of arms to Ukraine.

In a clear challenge to Berlusconi, she said yesterday: “Italy is fully part of Europe and the Atlantic alliance with head held high. Whoever disagrees with this principle cannot be part of the government, at the cost of not forming a government.”

Although Berlusconi is a junior partner in Meloni’s coalition, she needs his MPs to reach a majority in parliament.

She added: “With us in government, Italy will never be the weak link in the West, the unreliable nation so dear to our many detractors.”

Tajani, a former president of the European parliament, was quick to distance himself from Berlusconi’s speech, claiming he would reconfirm Forza Italia’s “full support” for Ukraine and its pro-Europe stance at a meeting of MEPs today.

Berlusconi visited Crimea in 2015 to show his support for Russia’s annexation of the peninsula the year before. In his leaked speech, he claimed Donbas separatists who were attacked by Zelensky had sent a “desperate” delegation to Moscow to plead with Putin to defend them. “They say, ‘Vladimir, we don’t know what to do, defend us.’ He is against any initiative, resists, comes under huge pressure from the whole of Russia,” said Berlusconi, adding that Putin then opted for a rapid invasion to install a government of “good and sensible” people in Kyiv.

The opposition leaders Carlo Calenda, head of the Azione party, and Enrico Letta, head of the centre-left Democrats, said Berlusconi’s leaked speech meant Tajani was no longer a viable candidate for foreign minister.

“Berlusconi’s words confirm that Forza Italia is unreliable and clearly on Russia’s side,” Calenda said.