Italy won’t buy US arms for Ukraine – media
Italy’s budget doesn’t allow it to participate in US President Donald Trump’s plan to supply American arms to Ukraine, the Italian newspaper La Stampa reports, citing anonymous sources.
On Monday, Trump authorized new weapons deliveries to Ukraine, given that European NATO members provide funding, calling it a “very big deal.”
La Stampa said in an article on Wednesday that the strategy of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has already agreed to purchase several Patriot surface-to-air missile systems for Ukraine, “will not be pursued by Italy.”
According to the paper’s sources, Rome will be opting out of the scheme “not only because our weapon systems already handed over to Kiev have other technological configurations, but above all because – unlike Germany – the budget that Italy can allocate to such an operation is practically non-existent.”
The only arms purchase from the US currently planned by Italy is the delivery of a batch of F35 fighter jets scheduled for the 2030s, the sources added.
Politico reported on Tuesday, citing two French officials, that Paris would not be purchasing US weapons for Kiev as France is looking to invest in its own defense industry to meet European security needs.
The same day, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala told Publico outlet that Prague is also currently “not considering” joining the initiative. The country “is focusing on other… ways to help Ukraine,” he explained.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas earlier welcomed Trump’s pledge to send more weapons to Ukraine, but urged Washington to “share the burden” in terms of financing the deliveries. Washington, meanwhile, has threatened to impose secondary US tariffs of up to 100% on Russia’s trading partners unless progress toward a peace agreement between Moscow and Kiev is made within 50 days.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that it is hard to predict how effective the weapons financing scheme would turn out due to Western Europe’s “emotional state bordering on inadequacy” over the Ukraine conflict. European NATO members appear to be ready “to spend countless amounts of money on purchasing weapons in order to further provoke the continuation of the war,” he said.
