Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni stated in a published interview on Saturday that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago served as a precursor to the attack by the Hamas militant group on Israel last October.

“If Russia had not invaded Ukraine, in all likelihood Hamas would not have launched such an attack against Israel,” Meloni told Italy’s Il Giornale newspaper, Politico reported.

“It was inevitable that such a serious violation of international law, moreover at the hands of a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, would have cascading consequences on other areas of the world, from the Middle East to the Balkans, up to Africa,” Meloni said in the interview.

“This is the game we are playing, and we must be aware. If international legality is not re-established in Ukraine, the outbreaks of conflict will continue to multiply,” she said.

Meloni also expressed support for a two-state solution, which she said is “in everyone’s interest, both Israel and Palestine.”

Written by B.C. Begley