Italy's Defence Minister comments on providing Ukraine with air defense system

This was stated by the Minister of Defense of Italy, Guido Crosetto.

"If possible, we will certainly help them defend themselves: Russia has crossed a line it shouldn't have crossed," he said.

However, it is difficult to implement, because Italy would have to reduce its own stocks of missiles to these systems, said Guido Crosetto.

"You won't find missiles in a supermarket, like a jar of Nutella, these are complex systems that require a long production time. You can't say OK, tomorrow I'll go and buy a hundred missiles. They don't exist. Therefore, if we give Ukraine air defense systems, we have to take them from our stocks, and we have to do it without compromising our defense and with confidence in quality," Crosetto added.

• In October, Zelenskyy requested SAMP-T air defense systems from Italy.
• On December 27, the Prime Minister of Italy Giorgia Meloni said in a conversation with the President of Ukraine that her country is considering providing air defense equipment to protect the sky from Russian attacks.