Green light for the arms package in Kyiv; government row postponed

The row over the dispatch of weapons to Kyiv has been postponed within the majority. The matter will be revisited next month, when the new ‘framework’ decree on civilian and military aid deliveries in 2027 is due to be discussed. That will be the occasion on which the League intends to put up a fight, to put into practice the political mandate that the leader Matteo Salvini secured from the extraordinary congress that confirmed him as party leader, mobilising the League to halt the flow of money and arms to Kyiv.

The signature of Giancarlo Giorgetti on the thirteenth military aid package for Ukraine – the absence of which sent a shiver through the ruling coalition on Monday evening – will, in fact, be forthcoming. As it is a classified document, it is explained, Giorgetti – who was in Brussels on Monday for the Eurogroup and Ecofin meetings – would not have been able to read and sign the interministerial decree remotely; it was instead initialled by the other two ministers responsible, Tajani and Crosetto. “There is no ‘Giorgetti issue’; it is a temporary physical impediment. I assume that when he returns to Rome, he will sign the package,” assured Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni before beginning her tour at the EIMA trade fair at BolognaFiere. Moreover, sources at Palazzo Chigi had spoken of a telephone call to clarify matters between the Prime Minister and the Minister for the Economy and Finance.

As for the League’s opposition to aid for Kyiv even in 2027, Meloni commented: “The majority has always managed to find a compromise; the different viewpoints that exist help us to reflect as well,” but “I do not believe that Italia’s position will change”. Further evidence of this is the presence yesterday, at the coordination meeting for the talks between the US, Russia and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi, of the National Security Adviser Fabrizio Saggio who, as sources at Palazzo Chigi emphasise, “reiterated full support for Ukraine, its sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as for the United States’ efforts to bring the parties back to the negotiating table”. At these talks, Europe could speak with one voice, as Meloni hopes. Among the points secured by the Prime Minister is, in fact, the willingness of the President of the European Council Antonio Costa to discuss in Dublin who should represent the EU at the negotiating table.

It was, above all, Minister Tajani’s hasty move – having presented a document as already signed by Giorgetti, when in fact the Minister for the Economy had not yet even read it – that had annoyed Salvini. And the remark that was leaked (“Nobody, not even Giorgetti, knows what’s in it”) suggested that the secretary wanted to be informed of the details of the military aid. However, no one in the League stood in the way yesterday of sending the thirteenth batch of supplies to Ukraine, which is ‘covered by last year’s decree’, as acknowledged even by Senator Claudio Borghi, one of the strongest opponents of continuing aid to Kyiv.

In the list of measures (classified, like all previous ones) that Minister Crosetto outlined yesterday to COPASIR, in addition to generators for civilian use, the availability of stocks of Aster missiles to ensure the operational capability of the Italian-French Samp-T battery – which had already been supplied in the past – could be reduced. Regarding Aster missiles, ‘we have some to keep for ourselves’, Crosetto remarked, after German Minister Boris Pistorius had also announced in recent days that Germany would no longer be able to supply Patriot missiles to Kyiv. The latest aid package to Ukraine was dispatched in December 2025. A few days after Christmas last year – eleven months ago now – the government adopted a new ‘framework’ decree authorising the dispatch of supplies, both military and civilian, throughout 2026. But to date, nothing had been sent. The hostility of the League played a part, but Crosetto also explained last week that ‘the scale of the aid packages has been reduced because Kyiv is asking for things that are not available’.