Ukraine, Italian chef: “Yesterday Zelensky at dinner, something is moving”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at dinner last night in his restaurant, the Osteria Il Tartufo in Kharkiv, thirty kilometers from the border with Russia. ” And today there are politicians, the prosecutor … They talk, they talk, they meet people, something is moving. They are making decisions. ” Chef Salvatore Leo, originally from the province of Salerno and in Ukraine for 13 years, tells Adnkronos about it. Of the notice issued by the crisis unit of the Farnesina to the Italians in Ukraine, who are asked to return to their homeland, he says he has not been informed. ” I don’t know anything about it. I run away when they run away, ” he declares. But they, the Ukrainians, meanwhile ” are transferring the money abroad, everyone is doing it. The economic war has already begun ”. In the meantime ” I prepare food for Ukrainian politicians. Last night the president was here, Zelensky. He ate little. A few scallops, some fish, quails ”. Impossible to know how he was, whether he was tense or not. ” He eats in a closed room, we cannot approach him and I have not seen him in person. He has his own personal waiter who brings him the dishes that I cook for him ”, he added. Meanwhile, however, ” yesterday I registered on the website ‘dovesiamonelmondo.it’ ”, as the Italian embassy in Ukraine advised to do. , so that you can be traced and to receive useful information in case of emergency. For now ” there are no soldiers in the city, there are no tanks. Only the feeling that something is changing, something is moving. ” THE KIEV ENTREPRENEUR – ” Shocking news, I didn’t expect it so soon. He seems to me to have gone back 80 years. We are at war. ” These are the first words that the Italian entrepreneur Alberto De Marco, who has lived and worked in Kiev for six years where he deals with international financial cooperation and business design, shares with Adnkronos after the notice issued by the Farnesina Crisis Unit with the which the Italians present in Ukraine are invited to leave the country. ” I will leave for a few days, I will return to Italy for about ten days ”, he says, adding at the same time that “ here I have my company, my assets, my girlfriend, my friends ”. From Italy ” I will see what happens, but one thing is certain: if the Russians arrive in Kiev, I will return. And I’ll help the people I care about, my friends, my fiancée’s family, protect themselves. I cannot abandon them, it is not humanly admissible. ” De Marco, like many others in Kiev, had received the brochure of the Ukrainian Ministry of the Interior which instructed on what to do in the event of war. ” But I didn’t expect to have to move out of the blue as an evacuee. And I will definitely come back to take care of my loved ones. If I could find a way to get them all to come to Italy I would, it would be great. But I realize that for many of them it is impossible, they have elderly relatives to look after, they have their whole life here ”. ” If the European Union does not actively participate in the ” ongoing crisis between Ukraine and Russia ” risks suffering it. ” ” I understand very well the choice of the United States and Great Britain to evacuate, they did very well. Because if during the evacuation of American citizens an American bullet crossed with a Russian or vice versa, World War III would break out, ” he says. ” That of Italy, on the other hand, I don’t know how prudent it is. Also because Ukraine is in the Association Agreement of the European Union ”, he continues referring to the political and economic association agreement signed between Brussels and Kiev in March 2014.De Marco also explains that in Ukraine “ the very large majority of population is waiting to join the European Union. They made a revolution for it. ” By the way, he cites ” the latest polls before the military gathering at the borders indicated that 65 per cent of the population expressed their willingness to join the EU. It is now 70 percent. ” With the risk that a possible conflict will bring with it a wave of refugees in the countries of the European Union. ” With a problem not to be underestimated: the migrants who are now joining the EU come from low-schooling countries and cover unskilled jobs that Europeans do not want to do. On the other hand, Ukraine has one of the highest literacy rates in Europe and a very high level of graduates and professionals. Their arrival in the EU could also cause some problems for young Italian graduates ”. THE INTERPRETER IN KHARKIV – The Roman interpreter Marco Cirulli, who has lived in Kharkiv, Ukraine, 30 kilometers from the Russian border for 15 years has no intention of returning to Italy. “I am informed” of the notice issued by the Crisis Unit of the Foreign Ministry for the repatriation of Italians, he told Adnkronos, but “the Foreign Ministry is acting accordingly to the measures of other countries”. And since ” there are no changes in the city ” he excludes a return to Italy because ” here I have my family, my wife, our animals. The work. ” Also, referring to the Russians, he says that “ no one has any idea of ​​their real plans. If it’s a bluff, if they have real intentions or if they want to use leverage to put pressure ”.