Italy Wants To Supply Ukraine With SAMP/T Air Defense System, But Country's Government Doubts

Italy wants to supply Ukraine with the SAMP/T anti-aircraft/anti-missile defense system, but first the dissatisfaction of pro-Russian politicians must be overcome inside the country.

This was stated by Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani on Tuesday, Reuters writes.

According to the official version, technical problems must be solved before the transfer of air defense systems.

"There are no brakes ... but it will take time because there are technical problems to make the tools work, the military command is working on it," he said.

However, according to the media, the right-wing forces of Matteo Salvini and Silvio Berlusconi opposed the transfer of the air defense. Both of these politicians have long-standing ties to Russia.

Other sources in the political parties denied the existence of political differences.

The media point out that another issue that could hold back the decision is concern about stripping the Italian army of air defense systems. After all, two of their five anti-aircraft batteries are deployed in Kuwait and Slovakia.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on December 21, the United States announced a new military aid package for Ukraine with a total cost of about USD 1.8 billion.

Among other things, this package of military assistance provides for the transfer of the Patriot air defense system battery to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

We also wrote that on Wednesday, January 4, it became known about France's decision to hand over a batch of AMX-10RC wheeled tanks to Ukraine.