Italy's Defense Minister Crosetto on the U.S. limiting its support for Ukraine:

It’s a total mistake, a big mistake, because it’s fundamental support. It means denying a country every possibility of defending itself.

Peace will come when Putin is convinced there’s a stalemate, that he can’t advance.

But if he sees weakness on the Ukrainian front, and if the United States takes away resources, there is weakness.

Then he thinks he can win, so he’ll continue the war. You give him a reason to continue it, not a reason to end it.

When you weaken someone, you give an advantage to that person's enemy. In my view, that's totally wrong. Totally wrong at this moment.

Zelensky says Russia has struck Ukraine’s energy and oil and gas sector 76 times since Trump announced an energy ceasefire a week ago.

Zelensky adds Russia launched nearly 2,700 attack drones, 1,700 glide bombs and 66 missiles at Ukraine over the past week.

Italy's Defense Minister Guido Crosetto:

The problem is, who is Europe? Europe isn't one person. It's 27 different countries, plus the UK, plus other countries.

That is Europe's political weakness, which is also a military weakness. That's what makes it difficult for Europe to speak.

Who speaks for Europe? How much does von der Leyen count compared to Macron, Merz and Meloni?

That is one of the problems. Who speaks for Europe?

For more than a year, we've been discussing finding one person to speak for Europe, and we haven't managed to find one.

Italy's Defense Minister Guido Crosetto on Russia:

I used the terms good and evil because when a state crosses another state's border with tanks, bombs hospitals, bombs schools, kills civilians, bombs power plants, and has been doing so for four years, I can only call it evil.

Italy's Defense Minister Guido Crosetto on Russia:

Most of the Russian budget goes toward investments in weapons or the military.

They will reach 1.5 million military personnel.

So if the war ended tomorrow, what would Putin do with 1.5 million soldiers?

He himself would face internal problems if he stopped the war tomorrow morning.

And this gives me the impression, since he continues to accelerate, that he would not want to stop in Ukraine.

This is Europe's concern, especially the concern of the Eastern European countries closest to Russia.

And that is why, as Europe and NATO, we are preparing.

Italy's Defense Minister Guido Crosetto on Russia:

Russia attacked Ukraine, it attacked Crimea, Georgia, if we want to go further back, Afghanistan.

So in the Russian mentality, there is the idea of attacking in order to occupy.

Italy's Defense Minister Guido Crosetto on NATO:

NATO was created to be a defensive alliance.

It was created to defend every member country, even the smallest, in the event of an attack.

If it does not do that, the alliance collapses.

If the alliance collapses, for the United States it is not a problem. For Europe, it is a problem.

Italy's Defense Minister Guido Crosetto on Trump:

Donald Trump, in my opinion, now has only one enemy in the world: China.

Everything else is a distraction for him.

His objective is the great competition between the United States and China over who will have technological and industrial supremacy.

Italy's Defense Minister Guido Crosetto on Russia:

There is a desire to put back together what Russia was before the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Precisely because Russia is not a great power, and Russia does not accept not being a great power, not being on the same level as the United States or China.

Since the global competition is now being fought only between the United States and China, Russia would like to be the third country at the table.

Italy's Defense Minister Guido Crosetto on Ukraine:

We know perfectly well that our public opinion, also influenced from abroad, is mostly opposed to aid to Ukraine.

It is difficult to explain that you must help a nation resist, and that helping it resist does not mean being against peace.

Above all, you cannot give in to public opinion when you believe public opinion is wrong.

Italy's Defense Minister Guido Crosetto on Ukraine:

The majority of public opinion is against aid to Ukraine.

But we have delivered 12 aid packages, and by the end of the year we will probably manage to deliver another one.

Italy's Defense Minister Guido Crosetto on Ukraine:

Ukraine will never be able to win the war.

My objective is to ensure Ukraine survives and to bring the war to an end.

Because when someone in Italy said, "Ukraine will win the war," some people thought that Ukraine wanted to defeat Russia.

No. That Zelensky would practically enter Moscow with the Ukrainian flag. No, no.

For Ukraine, victory means that Russia leaves, stops dropping bombs, and Ukraine once again becomes a country free to live and free to have a future.

That is the victory for Ukraine that we would all like.

Q: The war in Iran has gone on much longer than I think a lot of people expected. I have really just one big question on Iran: Why haven't we won decisively?

JD Vance: In some ways, we have won decisively, but the Iranians — you know, the enemy gets a vote here, and they have responded in certain ways.

JD Vance:

Gas prices are too high. They would be three times as high if it weren't for the United States Navy keeping oil and gas moving out of the Strait of Hormuz.

If we just give up and we walk away and say, "Oh, we destroyed their nuclear program. Who cares?" energy prices are going to go way up.

JD Vance on Iran:

There were issues with where troops were located that we realized was a huge mistake and that we could do better on, and we have changed that.

Now, I'm not going to get into the details because, God forbid, I don't want the Iranians to learn something else that they're going to use to target somebody else's wife or somebody else's mother.

JD Vance on Iran:

I see what Abdul El-Sayed says about the war in Iran. I see him criticizing decisions that the president has made, the military has made.

But fundamentally, we are where we are.