The two cruise missiles downed over Kiev and a barrage of Russian airstrikes reported by Ukrainian officials on Thursday "are certainly not a good sign" in the almost-nine-month-old war, according to Italy.
"Today's attacks against Ukraine's capital, Kiev, are certainly not a good sign," Italy's foreign minister Antoni Tajani told a conference in Rome.
The attacks were the latest in a series that have crippled Ukrainian energy infrastructure, leaving the population facing power outages amid plummeting winter temperatures.
"We want peace, but without justice there can only be surrender," Tajani said.
If Russia denies Ukraine and freedom and independence, "it would be a victory for autocracy against democracy," Tajani underlined.
"We want peace...but it's in the hands of the Russian Federation, aggressor against Ukraine and the instigator of a war at Europe's borders against a European Union candidate country," he said.
Russia's president Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale of invasion of Ukraine on 24 February "to demilitarise and de-Nazify" the former Soviet Republic and to ensure its 'neutral status'. Ukraine applied for EU membership days later.
