Ukraine ‘fatigue’ prevalent in Europe, Meloni tells Russian prank callers

Audio of the call, which took place in September, was released online on Wednesday by Russian comedy duo, Vovan and Lexus.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks with Italy's PM Giorgia Meloni in February | Pool photo by Johanna Geron via AFP/Getty Images

POLITICO

BY MARI ECCLES NOVEMBER 1, 2023

European leaders are “tired” of the war in Ukraine, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told two Russian pranksters in a call — thinking she was speaking with officials with the African Union.

Meloni informed the pair that “fatigue” with the war was coming to a head.

“I see that there is a lot of fatigue, I have to say the truth, from all the sides,” she said. “We [are] near the moment in which everybody understands that we need a way out.”

Audio of the call, which took place in September, was released online on Wednesday by Russian comedy duo, Vovan and Lexus, whose real names are Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov. They have been accused of acting as a “pro-Kremlin tool of information warfare” by targeting high-profile westerners who have spoken out against Moscow since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Meloni’s office said in a statement it “regretted” she was “deceived by an impostor” who passed himself off as the head of the executive of the African Union, a 55-member bloc. 

It explained that the call took place on September 18 in the lead-up to meetings with African leaders at the U.N. General Assembly.

The leaked conversation comes as Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has asked the West not to relent in its support for Ukraine. He said this week that the “scariest thing” is that some in the world have grown used to the war in Ukraine.

“Exhaustion with the war rolls along like a wave,” he said in an interview with Time. “You see it in the United States, in Europe. And we see that as soon as they start to get a little tired, it becomes like a show to them: ‘I can’t watch this rerun for the 10th time.’”

But Meloni spoke about more than Ukraine in the 13-minute call: She also criticized international partners for not doing enough on migration.

“They do all agree that only Italy has to solve this problem alone,” she said. “It’s a very stupid way of thinking.”

Meloni isn’t the first high-profile politician to have been taken in by such mischief. Earlier this year, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel was duped by the pair pretending to be former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. They’ve also caught out former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and singer Elton John. 

https://www.politico.eu/article/giorgia-meloni-ukraine-fatigue-prank-call-russia-war/