Adviser to the Head of the President's Office of Ukraine Mykhailo Podoliak responded to the statement of Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto about the need to put Ukraine and Russia at the peace negotiating table.

"After 423 days of the bloody war, it is impossible. Because it is a contrived war of extermination waged by the Russian Federation, not a mythical 'conflict.' There is no room for 'settlement," Podoliak said.

Earlier, the Italian newspaper La Stampa, quoted by Libero Quotidian, published an interview with Defense Minister Crosetto, where he stated the need to put Ukraine and Russia at the peace negotiating table; and also that China could become an intermediary in this.

According to him, Italy is moving along two main lines: the first is assistance to Ukraine in its right to self-defense. And the second is "a constant and daily obligation to sit down at the negotiating table."

"Because now the only thing we can do is not to end the war, but to stop the conflict and try to put two interlocutors at the same table who do not talk to each other and have nothing in common," Crosetto said.

He expressed hope for Europe's "greater role" in the effort "to pour water on the fire."

"Gasoline pours very well, but there is no one to become a firefighter. The UN, which was supposed to be a firefighter, missed the chance to be one. Because the Security Council is blocked by permanent members such as Russia, China, the United States," the minister said.

Therefore, according to Crosetto, peace needs another mediator at the negotiating table; and it could be China.