Former Italian Prime Minister Comments NATO's Ukraine Strategy Has Failed

According to RT, former Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte recently said that NATO's efforts to defeat Russia in the Ukraine conflict have completely failed to achieve their goals as Moscow continues to stand firm amid Kiev's weak counterattack and Western sanctions.

Writing on Facebook, Mr Conte, who leads the Five Star Movement party, noted that a year and a half of conflict between Moscow and Kiev showed it was time to "discard optimistic assessments... fueled by a noisy but shallow war propaganda campaign" in the West.

According to the former Italian prime minister, the US-led military bloc’s strategy, which so far has relied on massive military aid to Kiev and “the logic of escalation”, has failed to bring about what it hoped for: the collapse of the Russian army. Mr. Conte noted that Ukraine has never succeeded in pushing back Russian forces from Artyomovsk/Bakhmut, a key stronghold in Donbass that Russia took control of in May after months of fierce fighting.

“There was no disintegration in the Russian military and staff units, no retreat due to the Ukrainian counteroffensive,” the former prime minister stressed, adding that Western hopes for an internal political crisis in the country also did not come true.

Meanwhile, Conte said that the West's harsh sanctions against Russia "have not bankrupted or weakened their economy", noting that the long-stated goal of isolating Moscow has "absolutely not been achieved".

To reinforce his point, the politician pointed to the recent BRICS Summit – of which Russia is a member – which ended with an unprecedented expansion of the group.

In addition, Mr. Conte said that the conflict in Ukraine "has exposed the EU's inability to develop an effective common strategy and demonstrate autonomous political and economic leadership." Instead, it has become another indicator of the bloc's concessions to the United States.

Mr Conte's comments came as Ukraine's counter-offensive has failed to make any significant progress despite more than two months of fighting. According to Moscow, Kiev has lost more than 43,000 soldiers and nearly 5,000 pieces of military equipment since the start of the counter-offensive.

The former Italian prime minister, who held office from 2018 to 2021, has repeatedly called for peace talks between the conflicting parties in Ukraine, while opposing the provision of more weapons to Kiev, warning of the risk of escalation.