Nothing in this world matters more than peace. And as Marcus Tullius Cicero averred: “An unjust peace is better than a just war.”

However, when it comes to the Russo-Ukrainian conflict, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni echoes the Roman statesman’s corollary that “there is a great difference between peace and servitude.”

Accordingly, Signora Meloni has succeeded in forging a budgetary EU solution that will ensure Kyiv’s survival on the battlefield without crossing a tripwire that could plunge the continent into total war.

Euronews’s Jorge Liboreiro reports that the bloc “will now go to the markets to raise €90 billion on its own, without touching the €210 billion in Russian assets, which will remain immobilized until Moscow ceases its war of aggression and compensates Kyiv for the damages.”

Writing in Il Giornale, Tommaso Cerno notes that even the left-leaning Le Monde has crowned Italy’s premier as the “winner in the penalty shootout of the match on the future of Ukraine.”

Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who had penned a ham-handed opinion piece in the Financial Times in favor of utilizing the Russian assets, lost.

Indeed, as Mr. Liboreiro notes: “Some saw it as yet another example of Germany exploiting its position as the largest member state to single-handedly set the agenda for the entire bloc.”

Both President Volodymyr Zelensky and Signora Meloni are aware that painful territorial compromises are in the offing. The American negotiating team has made that clear.

Yet when peace comes, the sovereign Ukraine that emerges from the carnage must not be some powerless, subservient rump state subject to a Russian Anschluss.

Indeed, the Italian prime minister’s insistence on extending an Article 5-like guarantee to post-war Ukraine has now become part of the American peace proposal.

ANSA recently reported that Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani struck an optimistic tone regarding negotiations to end the war: “The prospects regarding security guarantees for Ukraine are very positive. The Americans will be part of it and they have made it clear that there will be a mechanism similar to NATO Article 5, which is the Italian proposal, too.”

Mr. Tajani’s declaration also underscored the belief among America’s negotiators that “Italy’s proposals, especially with regard to the security of Ukraine and Europe, were accepted because they were common-sense proposals.”

Signora Meloni is not out for glory or self-aggrandizement. Nor does she play politics in matters of war and peace.

There’s no room for grandstanding in her world, no kabuki political theater. Her endgame is securing an honorable and sustainable peace.

In a recent video conference of the “Coalition of the Willing,” Signora Meloni stressed the critical role of Western unity “in supporting a path towards a just and lasting peace in Ukraine.”

Since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Signora Meloni’s Italy has furnished Kyiv with 11 packages of substantial military aid ranging between 2.5 billion and 3 billion euros. And a 12th tranche of military support has already been approved by the Italian government.

What’s more, Rome has sent a wealth of humanitarian aid to Kyiv, including medical supplies, generators, incubators, and extensive reconstruction funding.

And as the new year dawns, the president of Italy’s Council of Ministers is pledging Italy’s unstinting support in the reconstruction of Ukraine’s shattered economy and infrastructure.

In the hotly debated push by Herr Merz and the EU Commission president, Ursula Von der Leyen, to use Russia’s frozen assets to support Ukraine, Signora Meloni’s pragmatism has prevailed.

Reuters reported Friday that “Ukraine thanked the European Union on Friday for deciding to provide it with 90 billion euros ($105.46 billion) of support over the next two years.”

One need not be a “Game of Thrones” aficionado to know that winter is coming. That holds true for Moscow as much as it does for Kyiv, even as some critics, like Martin Gurri, writing in the New York Post, contend that “the Russians are winning” the war. What Mr. Putin apparently envisioned as a blitzkrieg-like operation, though, has turned into a humiliating military debacle as plucky Ukraine has bloodied the Russian bear.

The Institute for the Study of War believes that Moscow would need “two or more years to seize the remainder of Donetsk Oblast at great cost at current rates of advance and losses.”

Though Kremlin forces have been pushing ahead in their offensive in eastern Ukraine, Russia’s casualties are staggering. According to the Sun’s  James Brooke, Moscow will have suffered “400,000 Russian soldiers killed or wounded in 2025.”

Yet a woman named Giorgia is coupling common sense with geopolitical wisdom to make certain that peace — however hard and bitter — comes to Kyiv.

Italy’s prime minister is doing so for Ukraine, for Europe, and for the success and survival of the West.