Former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi has defended Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, saying Russia’s leader was “pushed” into the conflict.
According to the 85-year-old, Russian forces were sent in to overthrow the current administration and install “good people” in its place.
The Russian President has a long-standing supporter in the three-term Italian prime minister.
In an Italian general election this weekend, his party is expected to take power as a member of a right-wing coalition.According to Mr. Berlusconi, the media in Moscow promoted the myth that the Ukrainian government was massacreing Russian speakers in the country’s east.
He claimed that Mr. Putin was forced to start a limited invasion as a result of the reporting, which was supported by separatist groups and nationalist politicians in the Russian government.
The Russian people, his party, and his ministers “pushed Putin to invent this unique operation,” he claimed.
Mr. Berlusconi said, “The army were meant to enter, arrive in Kyiv in a week, remove the Zelensky administration and replace it with moral people, and then return in a week.
Instead, they encountered an unexpected opposition that was later fueled by weapons coming from the West.