Antonio Tajani on anti-air deliveries. “There are no brakes on the delivery of the air defence shield to Ukraine,” said the Italian Foreign Minister on Tuesday. He was referring to the SAMP/T anti-air systems requested by Kyiv to protect the Ukrainian population and critical infrastructures from Russian missiles and drones.
- “We voted to renew the authorization to send weapons to Kyiv in a European and NATO context, after informing Parliament,” added Minister Tajani, noting Defence Minister Guido Crosetto is working accordingly.
- The air shield system is French-Italian, and requires both countries to deliver complete units. “We are working intensively with the French,” assured the FM, stressing the hurdles are technical and not bureaucratic in nature and that the effort “takes time.”
Missiles on Kyiv, disinfo on Rome. Over the past few days, the Kremlin’s diplomatic channels worked to spread disinformation narratives about Italy providing anti-personnel mines to Ukraine. Minister Crosetto weighed in on Monday, calling out Russia’s lies and explaining why Italy – an original signatory of the Ottawa Treaty that has not been building these devices for over 28 years – cannot possibly be supplying deadly mines to Kyiv.
