When Giorgia Meloni won Italy’s general election in 2022, there was little reason for optimism in Kyiv. European media warned that Italy might soon have a leader inclined to move closer to Viktor Orbán. Analysts pointed to her previous positions on Russia, her criticism of the sanctions imposed after the annexation of Crimea, and the fact that she would govern alongside politicians who had never concealed their sympathy for Vladimir Putin. As it turned out, almost everyone was wrong. Today, Giorgia Meloni is one of Europe’s most consistent advocates of continued support for Ukraine. She has never been the loudest voice in the room, nor has she built her political identity around rhetoric about Ukraine. Her support for Kyiv has been reflected in decisions repeated month after month and year after year. In European politics, where positions are often adjusted to opinion polls and immediate political needs, such consistency has become a rarity. That is precisely why Giorgia Meloni’s case is politically significant.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Her transformation was not the result of ideological trends. It emerged from confronting realities that Russia’s invasion made impossible to ignore. Before the war, Meloni, like parts of the European right, viewed Russia through the prism of pragmatic relations and economic interests. She supported lifting the sanctions imposed after Crimea. In 2018, she congratulated Putin on his victory in the Russian presidential election. Nothing in her political record suggested that only a few years later she would become one of Europe’s most steadfast voices in support of Ukraine. Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 reshaped Europe’s security architecture. In Meloni’s case, it also reshaped her political assessment of Russia.