51% of Italians want to keep sending weapons to Ukraine, just as the Meloni government is doing, according to the latest SWG polling as presented on TGLa7. The result consolidates Italy’s positioning in the pro-Ukrainian and pro-Western camp, confirming the ongoing trend of divergence from the likes of Russia and China.
- Those who would rather stop the supply of weapons – as proposed by the Five Star Movement’s Giuseppe Conte – amount to 31%, while the undecided stand at 18%.
Two ways about it. Of the 51% who believe it best to supply Kyiv with weapons, 22% think that such support is useful for as long as it takes for Russia to be defeated. The other 29% believe that military aid serves to maintain the pressure needed to reopen peace negotiations – even “at the cost of Ukraine losing territory,” which is in contrast with the line of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Think F-16 training. Over the weekend, several Western allies agreed to supply fighter jets to the Ukrainian resistance. As noted by PM Meloni at the G-7 Summit in Hiroshima, Italy does not possess any F16s – but is evaluating, along with allies, whether it could contribute to training Ukrainian pilots to fly them.
- As noted by specialist website Analisi Difesa, Rome could play a relevant role “in the training of young Ukrainian pilots destined to fly F-16s by offering advanced training on Leonardo M-346 Master aircraft.”
- Italy could also include Ukrainian fighters in its world-class International Flight Training School (IFTS) training programmes, which recently opened a new campus in Decimomannu, Sardinia.
- Finally, as noted by General Vincenzo Camporini on La Stampa, Rome does have bombs and missiles compatible with the F-16 in stock, and it would provide them to Kyiv.
