Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the President of Ukraine, had a telephone conversation with the Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni. The parties agreed to start working on bilateral safety guarantees and discussed new sanctions against Russia.

During the conversation, they discussed defence cooperation and the need to accelerate the adoption of the 12th package of EU sanctions against Russia.

"Italy is demonstrating powerful leadership, and I anticipate that its 2024 G7 Presidency will yield even more important results," Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter (X).

Meloni and Zelenskyy also agreed to start work on bilateral security guarantees in developing the G7 Vilnius Declaration.

Zelenskyy thanked Meloni for supporting the Peace Formula, and also invited her to participate in the second Grain from Ukraine summit.

Earlier, Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, predicted that the new package of sanctions against Russia could be agreed on and presented this week.

Bloomberg reported that the 12th EU sanctions package includes proposed restrictions on trade worth about €5 billion.

The new package may cover more than 100 individuals and 40 legal entities. There are also discussions about banning the employment of Russians in so-called "sensitive" sectors and the repatriation of Russian assets to the EU.

Discussions on the new sanctions moved forward after the G7 foreign ministers gave green light to impose restrictions on diamonds of Russian origin at a meeting in Japan.