ROME – Italy’s military minister expressed reservations about supplying Ukraine with air defense equipment, as requested by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The systems would be offered “if possible,” according to Guido Crosetto, who told the newspaper Il Messaggero in an article published on Wednesday.
“However, if we deliver air defense missiles to Ukraine, we must remove them from our inventories, and we must do it without depleting them and while remaining confident in their quality,” he continued.
Crosetto told Reuters earlier this month that the Franco-Italian SAMP/T air defense system was among the military assistance requested by Kyiv from Rome.
His comments to Il Messaggero come following a phone chat between Zelensky and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Tuesday, after which Zelensky tweeted that Rome was thinking about supplying air defenses.
He is urging Ukraine’s Western partners to provide military aid in response to three months of Russian missile and drone attacks on civilian facilities.
Italy supplied five aid packages to Kyiv, including military supplies, under former Prime Minister Mario Draghi, and Meloni’s government is working on a sixth delivery.
Despite disagreement within her rightist ruling coalition and a significant pacifist element within domestic public opinion, Meloni, who took office in October, has been a staunch defender of Kyiv.
Source: Reuters
