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Italy warns against ‘rash’ moves over arms to Ukraine

Italy's foreign minister on Saturday reiterated his opposition to Ukraine using Italian weapons inside Russia, warning of a "delicate" situation where "rash" moves must be avoided.

Published: 1 June 2024 14:17 CEST

Italy warns against 'rash' moves over arms to Ukraine

Italy's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani delivers a speech. Photo: Tiziana FABI/AFP.

Support is growing among NATO allies for allowing Ukraine to use Western-donated weapons to strike inside Russian territory – but Rome, a founding member of the alliance, remains opposed.

“It is a very delicate moment, we must not make false steps” and must avoid “rash steps and declarations”, Antonio Tajani told a meeting in Rapallo, northwest Italy, according to the AGI and ANSA news agencies.

He added that “even the US has not authorised the indiscriminate use of its weapons against Russia, but only to strike a base from where the drones depart. They too are very cautious”, AGI reported.

Tajani added that Italy would send another package of aid to Ukraine within “weeks”.

But he repeated that “we will not send even one Italian soldier to fight in Ukraine because we are not at war with Russia”, AGI reported.

Germany said on Friday it had given Ukraine permission to fire German-delivered weapons at targets in Russia.

READ ALSO: Berlin allows Ukraine to fire German weapons at targets in Russia

The day before, US officials said Washington had partially lifted similar restrictions to allow Ukraine to defend its eastern Kharkiv region, which borders Russia.

The change in Washington’s thinking was attributed by US officials to Russia’s daily pounding of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second biggest city.

Russia fired a combined 100 missiles and drones at Ukraine overnight, in a barrage that targeted energy sites across the country, Ukrainian officials said on Saturday.

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Italy PM states 'determined' support as Zelensky presses allies

“We must not give up on Ukraine,” Meloni said after the meeting on the sidelines of an economic forum in Cernobbio, northern Italy, which focused on reconstruction and efforts to end the war with Russia.

Zelensky had on Friday addressed the European House-Ambrosetti forum, hours after pressing for more weapons at a meeting of allies at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where Washington unveiled $250 million in new military aid.

Meloni’s government — which this year holds the rotating G7 presidency — has been among the strongest supporters of Ukraine since Russian forces invaded in February 2022.

READ ALSO: Zelensky meets Meloni in Italy, presses for more arms

But some members of her coalition government — notably League leader Matteo Salvini, who has a history of warm ties with Moscow — are less enthusiastic.

Rome has sent weapons to Kyiv, but has said these should be used only on Ukrainian territory, not to attack Russia itself.

In her address to the forum on Saturday, Meloni said the position of EU and NATO member Italy on Ukraine was “extremely serious, determined and clear”.

She addressed members of the Italian public who are “scared, legitimately worried about the war”, but urged them not to “fall into the trap of Russian propaganda” in believing Ukraine’s fate was sealed.

Helping Ukraine fight back against its vastly more powerful neighbour had created the “stalemate” conditions in which peace could be discussed, she said.

And she warned that allowing Ukraine to fall to Russian aggression “will not bring peace, it will bring chaos” and economic consequences “more serious that what it costs today to support Ukraine”.

More weapons

In Germany on Friday, where he also met Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Zelensky urged Kyiv’s supporters to provide more weapons and follow through on previous commitments, saying: “The number of air-defence systems that have not been delivered is significant.”

And after Ukraine’s surprise push into Russia’s Kursk region last month, he again called for restrictions to be lifted on the use of long-range Western weapons.

At Cernobbio, he assured Italy that the weapons would only be used to hit military targets.

In their talks Saturday, Meloni said she had also discussed with Zelensky a planned meeting in Italy next year on reconstructing Ukraine.

And she “reiterated the centrality of support for Ukraine in the agenda of the Italian G7 presidency”, according to her office.

“I thank Giorgia and the Italian people for their support and joint efforts in restoring a just peace,” the Ukrainian leader wrote on X after the talks, posting a video of the pair hugging.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban — who upset his EU counterparts and Zelensky by meeting Putin in Moscow in July — also addressed the Cernobbio forum on Friday.

The Ukrainian president rejected Orban’s calls for a ceasefire, saying that Putin had never respected earlier accords.

Zelensky’s visits to Italy and Germany came just days after one of the deadliest strikes of the war and as Russian forces make battlefield gains.

Some 55 people were killed and 300 wounded in a Russian missile strike on Tuesday on the city of Poltava.

Meanwhile Moscow’s forces advance in the Donbas, with Putin on Thursday declaring that capturing the eastern area was his “primary objective” in the conflict.

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