this was the moment he arrived at the prime minister s residence in rome, where he was greeted by italian president sergio mattarella. shortly after this, he met the italian prime minister, giorgia meloni. she s been one of ukraine s more vocal backers, although polls suggest that italian people overall are opposed to sending ukraine more weapons, as are some of her coalition partners. more now from the bbc s sofia bettiza in rome. more than 1000 security officers have been deployed in rome today. this is the first time the president zelensky visits italy since russia invaded ukraine last year. he has had a meeting with his counterpart, the italian president. they had a private meeting that lasted for about 25 minutes and some of the things that they discussed were economic sanctions against russia, the kidnapping of ukrainian children, the need to step up the fight against pro kremlin fake news and ukrainejoining the european union. after the meeting, president zelensky said
border wall and watched as hundreds of migrants were placed in a single file, put on white buss and processed and not quite clear how many were released. also fox news cameras captured migrants in brownsville, texas, yesterday after they were released yet the white house insists there s no mass releases happening. the way we see nah the way we see that is sabotage and it s clear and simple and cvp allowing and encouraging mass release of migrants is just categorically false. that s not occurring. reporter: it s also important to note that right now the government of mexico reporting there s 26,000 migrants on the mexican side of the border who are likely trying to make it into the united states or have already attempted to. as the sun comes up here in downtown el paso, you re likely going to be able to see much more activity here. this is a very busy area for migrants that are either released. they come here and they re fed and given shelter we re told inside of the she
ahead of an audience with pope francis. trumpets play this was the moment he arrived at the prime minister s residence in rome. later he ll be meeting the italian prime minister giorgia meloni, and also travel to the vatican. a huge security operation has been launched, with over 1,000 police deployed and a no fly zone over rome. president zelensky is then due to travel to germany, and in the past few hours we ve heard that germany has pledged nearly $3 billion of military to ukraine. that s the biggest aid package from italy yet. that s the biggest aid package from germany yet. but back to italy first. let s cross to the newsroom now and talk to our europe regional editor correspondent paul moss. why has zelensky travel to rome? he s trying to shore up political support and military aid for his country but it s an interesting case. 0n the one hand the prime minister, meloni, has been very vocal with their support of ukraine. but on the other hand you have to look at who else