Italian foreign minister summons Russian ambassador after verbal attack on president

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani announced Thursday that he summoned the Russian envoy to the Farnesina following a verbal attack against President Sergio Mattarella.

"I strongly condemn yet another verbal attack on President Mattarella," Tajani wrote on X. "He is a man of peace and a symbol of national and European unity. That is why I have decided to summon the Russian Ambassador to the Foreign Ministry."

Tajani expressed support for the Italian head of state.

"President Mattarella has my deepest solidarity," he wrote.

Diplomatic tensions between Rome and Moscow, which began last month when Italian President Sergio Mattarella likened Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine to Nazi Germany and escalated with a sharp response from Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova. The strained relations flared Tuesday after seeming to subside.

Zakharova rejected Mattarella's claim that "Russia has threatened to use nuclear weapons" as a "lie" and insisted that it "is not true and must be accounted for."