Meloni tells NATO it can count on Italy in Ukraine

ROME (AP) — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni is pledging Italy’s “strong commitment” to NATO and efforts to help liberate Ukraine from Russia’s invasion. Meloni told NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg during a meeting at her office on Thursday that the best way to defend European security was to remain united. Meloni heads Italy’s first far-right-led government since the end of World War II. She has strongly backed Ukraine in the war, even as her two principal coalition allies, former Premier Silvio Berlusconi and League leader Matteo Salvini, have equivocated. Both men have past ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Berlusconi boasted last month that he had reconnected with Putin and the two had exchanged gifts.