April 25, 2022: Liberation cannot be celebrated without supporting Ukraine

Honoring the Liberation of April 25 cannot fail to mean full support for the heroic Ukrainian resistance both by supplying arms to Kiev and above all by promoting a strong diplomatic initiative that leads to peace

This April 25 2022 it's not like everyone else. For the obvious reason that everything has changed since February 24th and that the infamous Russian invasion of the Ukraine has brought us closer to the horrors of war. Of a war that destroys thousands of human lives, which knocks on the doors of Europe and which calls into question the defense of the same values - freedom and justice above all - on which the Italian Resistance to Nazi-fascism was born and from which, with the American support, the Liberation of April 25, 1945 arrived.

Once again the best words to remember our Liberation and tie it to the Ukrainian tragedy of these times came from the President Sergio Mattarella, which for the occasion highlighted two fundamental concepts.

Mattarella: our peace and our freedom "were conquered with weapons"

The thought of the Head of State in the face of the war in Ukraine manifested itself above all on the basis of two unavoidable assumptions:

"peace is not surrendering to arrogance” yesterday of Nazi-fascism and today of the Russian invader;
our peace and our freedom were "conquered with weapons", with the weapons of a people who, with the Resistance, wrote one of the most glorious pages of our country.

April 25, our resistance is linked to that of Ukraine: we need weapons but also a great diplomatic initiative

This is why yesterday's Italian Resistance and today's Ukrainian Resistance are linked by an undeniable red thread. And that is why those who - like Italy - defend the values of freedom, justice, democracy and peace - cannot turn their heads away, cannot take refuge in a hypocrite "Neither with Russia nor with the Ukraine” but is called, here and now, to choose sides in support of the Ukrainian resistance.

If Ukraine needs weapons to resist the Russian devastation, it is a duty to give them. Naturally the ultimate goal of the war in Ukraine remains a just peace and therefore weapons like all forms of solidarity (from food to medicines, hospitality and everything that the Ukrainians need to survive) are indispensable but not enough. Politics is needed and, at the right time and in the right ways, a major diplomatic offensive is needed to open a peace table at which both Ukraine and Russia can sit.

Until now this has been the weak side of those who care about peace and it is time for Europe to do its part. There Emmanuel Macron's victory in the French presidential elections it gives him, as temporary president of the European Union, more strength to try to bring Putin to the negotiating table for which Zelensky has said he is already ready. And we hope that you exercise it in the most effective way and in the shortest possible time. It would be the best way to also honor the anniversary of the Liberation from Nazi-fascism more than seventy years ago.