Crosetto at Copasir on Tuesday: a consensus is emerging on military aid to Ukraine. Here’s what the package might include

Discussions are intensifying on the 13th military aid package for Ukraine. Speaking during Question Time in the Senate, and in response to a question on military aid to Kyiv, Defence Minister Guido Crosetto announced that the package has been drawn up and could be discussed by Copasir, the Parliamentary Committee for the Security of the Republic, next week. The hearing, according to the Chamber of Deputies, will take place on Tuesday 10 November at 3.00 pm. The package is expected to be approved once Crosetto has briefed Copasir.

“We will honour the commitments we have made to our European allies, NATO and Ukraine, and the package has been drawn up again this year; I believe it will be discussed at the COPASIR meeting next week,” said the minister. “Despite everything, we have put together this thirteenth package, honouring a commitment we made in Parliament and as a Government. And we will continue to honour it,” added Crosetto, explaining that the time taken to prepare it is linked to changes in Ukraine’s military requirements and the difficulty in sourcing the requested materials. “The threats have changed, as have the resources needed to counter them,” the minister emphasised.

Crosetto sent a clear message: ‘Those who think that Italia’s withdrawal might somehow bring the war to an end fail to understand that all the other nations would continue to honour their commitments and continue to provide aid – and, moreover, that the possibility of conquering Ukraine would strengthen Russia’s resolve to continue the war: it is a fairly simple line of reasoning that I still share today, and which we all share’. The Defence Minister explained that ‘this package has been put together because the situation on the ground in Ukraine has changed profoundly; until recently, Ukraine was able to repel 90 per cent of attacks, whereas now it repels only 10 per cent, because Russian technology has advanced exponentially and the speed of the new missiles makes it difficult – often impossible – to stop them. So Ukraine’s requests have also changed’. Crosetto also said that Kyiv is asking for “things that are not available, which is why the scale of the aid packages has been reduced – precisely because, as time has passed and aid has been sent, the items that were actually needed were no longer available and have been difficult to send”.

“I will also propose the possibility of extending the decree’s provisions” into next year as well, “which were not chosen by the Meloni government”. “There are people who seem to have forgotten this: the mechanism was chosen and voted for by the Draghi government and by virtually all the parties in the current opposition and the ruling coalition. Since then, positions have evolved over time”, but “if it was right then, it becomes difficult to explain why it is wrong now. As far as I am concerned, the government will maintain the course it has followed over the past four years”, the minister concluded.

Although the details remain confidential, according to informed sources consulted by Reuters, the package could include Aster interceptor missiles for the Franco-Italian SAMP/T air defence system. Kiev has repeatedly called for greater air defence capabilities to counter Russian missile and drone attacks on cities and critical infrastructure.