Italy Prepares to Extend Military Assistance to Ukraine for Another Year
At a meeting on Tuesday, the Italian Council of Ministers supported the extension for another year - until the end of 2024 - of the powers that allow it to provide military and military-technical assistance to Ukraine, the Italian Ministry of Defence said.
By its decision, the Italian government proposes to extend its authority to transfer weapons, vehicles and logistics to Ukraine. It still needs to be approved by both houses of the Italian parliament.
"The decree-law in question will allow the government to support for another year... the Ukrainian population committed to the defence of the freedom and sovereignty of their country, providing them, as it has been done so far, not only with weapons, but also with equipment, generators and everything necessary to support military operations to protect defenceless civilians," the statement said.
Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto stressed that with this decision, Rome once again "chooses the side of freedom of nations and respect for international law in order to achieve a just and lasting peace, in line with the position of NATO and EU allies".
As a reminder, the decision to provide military assistance to Ukraine was made by the previous Italian government, led by Mario Draghi. After Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni came to power in autumn 2022, her Council of Ministers decided to extend this authority until 2023.
Traditionally, the Italian side has not publicly disclosed what exactly will be included in the military assistance. However, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said that Italy, together with France, is finalising the transfer of the SAMP/T anti-aircraft missile system to be handed over to Ukraine.
In October, Italian Defence Minister Crosetto said that Italy was preparing to transfer the eighth military aid package to Ukraine, but had not yet decided what it would contain.
At the same time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to discuss the upcoming aid package and a bilateral agreement on "security guarantees", as well as Italy's upcoming presidency of the Group of Seven.
In the context of preparing the next defence package from Italy, the leaders discussed, among other things, strengthening Ukraine's air defence to protect civilians and grain infrastructure. They also discussed the conclusion of a bilateral agreement between Ukraine and Italy on security guarantees based on the G7 Joint Declaration of Support for Ukraine adopted at the NATO Summit in Vilnius.