Italy government renews Ukraine arms supply law for 2023

Italy’s cabinet adopted a decree allowing the country to continue supplying Ukraine with arms for the entire year ahead of next year, without requesting formal approval from parliament, sources in government said. This was after a cabinet meeting.

This move comes after Giorgia Meloni, the new prime minister, assured that her administration would continue to support Kyiv, despite any frictions within the ruling right-wing coalition.

The decree, which was seen by Reuters, is immediately effective but must be confirmed by parliament within two months. It extends an arrangement that former premier Mario Draghi had made, and would otherwise have expired on 31 December.

Although the details of Italy's military supplies for Ukraine are not public, a governing coalition official said last month that Rome was preparing a new shipment which would include air defense systems requested by Kyiv.

La Repubblica reported Thursday that Italy would provide Ukraine with four batteries of its "old-generation Aspide antiaircraft system", with 18 missiles and radars.

According to the paper, approval could come in late December or early in January

Meloni supports Kyiv strongly, but her allies Matteo Salvini from the League and Silvio Berlusconi from Forza Italia are more uncertain due to their historical ties to Russia and President Vladimir Putin.

The government attempted to extend Ukraine's arms supply law through an amendment to a unrelated decree that was going through parliament. However, stopped short of addressing the objections from the opposition.

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