Defense against ballistic missiles. France, Italy finalize supply of SAMP/T to Ukraine - Reuters

Reuters reports, citing two diplomatic sources.

Kyiv has asked its Western allies to provide more air defense systems and, in particular, in November asked for the SAMP/T, known as Mamba, to be provided to it.

French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu will travel to Italy on Friday to meet with his Italian counterpart Guido Crosetto. Both sides are seeking to make progress in the SAMP/T negotiations.

"We are finalising it with the Italians. It's not very far off," a French diplomatic source said.

The air defense system, created by a joint Franco-Italian consortium, can track dozens of targets and intercept 10 simultaneously and is the only European-made system capable of shooting down ballistic missiles.

"A political decision was made. It's now just finalising the technical details because it's a complicated system," the second diplomat said.

He added that French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni are expected to officially announce the decision.

The third official said that technical negotiations are ongoing.

Paris has previously supplied Ukraine with Mistral anti-aircraft missile systems and Crotale short-range anti-aircraft missiles, which are used to intercept low-flying missiles and aircraft.

• On January 26, it became known that the Italian government decided to transfer SAMP-T and Aspide air defense systems and  Israeli artillery and drones to Ukraine. This will be done within two weeks.