Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi has announced the unanimous support of the Italian parliament for the supply of weapons to Ukraine and the prospects of strengthening sanctions on Russia.

"The decision to send weapons was taken in parliament almost unanimously ... Sanctions are necessary to weaken the aggressor, but they cannot stop the troops in the short term. For that we need to help the Ukrainians directly, what we are doing. Not to do so would be tantamount to telling them to surrender, accept slavery and submission - this goes against our European values of solidarity. Instead, we want to let Ukrainians defend themselves," Draghi told Italy's Corriere della Sera.

The Italian prime minister called the Ukrainian resistance heroic and noted that "there is no sign that the Ukrainian people will put up with the Russian occupation."

At the same time, he noted that the position of all NATO allies is still to avoid direct European involvement in the war.

According to Draghi, he communicated with Russian President Vladimir Putin after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and when urged to discuss peace with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, he was told that "the time for that has not come yet. And after the murders in Bucha in Kyiv region, the Italian prime minister came to the conclusion that dialogue with the Russian head of state was useless. "I'm beginning to think that those who say: you have no use talking to them, you're only wasting time," he said.

The Prime Minister of Italy noted that the European Commission and all allies are convinced that the sanctions against Russia are effective.

"Europe buys more than half of Russia's gas exports. The European Union's market power over Moscow is a weapon to be used... Europe continues to finance Russia by buying oil and gas, including at a price that has nothing to do with production costs. Imposing a ceiling on the price of Russian gas, as proposed by Italy, is a way to strengthen sanctions while minimizing the costs to us who impose them," he said.

"We no longer want to depend on Russian gas, because economic dependence should not become political subordination. For this we need to diversify energy sources and find new suppliers ... Diversification is possible and feasible in a relatively short time, faster than we anticipated just a month ago," Draghi added.