Italian MFA refuses to give tanks to Ukraine, insists on negotiations with Russia

The Nova agency reported this with reference to the Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani's statement. 

“We are not at war with Russia, we have nothing against the Russian people, and there will be no Italian tanks in Ukraine,” he stressed.

The minister added that Italy is working for peace and is ready to send only defensive weapons. At the same time, according to the Italian minister, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin will still have to sit down at the negotiating table.

“Zelenskyy and Putin will eventually have to sit down at the negotiating table. The United States, China, Turkey, the Vatican and above all the UN have the great task of finding a solution”, Tajani added. 

It is known that Italy has about 1,700 tanks in service. In particular, the German Leopard-1, American M60A1 and M47.

• On January 25, Germany announced that Ukraine would receive 14 Leopard 2 tanks and allowed their re-export to partner countries.

• On January 24, it became known that US President Joe Biden is ready to send Abrams tanks to Ukraine to encourage Germany to hand over the Leopards.

• According to the results of the latest negotiations, Ukraine expects to receive about 100 Leopard tanks from 12 countries.