ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s government will ask parliament to pass a new law on military and civilian supplies to Ukraine throughout 2023, Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said in an interview published on Monday.
The Rome government can send aid to Ukraine without seeking parliamentary authorisation each time on the basis of a decree that expires at the end of the year.
“The Defence (ministry) will shortly propose to renew that same measure, extending it to all of 2023,” Crosetto told Il Foglio newspaper.
Crosetto said Italy would continue supplying arms, as it has done in the past, “in the times and ways that we will agree with our Atlantic allies and with Kyiv”.
Crosetto belongs to Brothers of Italy, the right-wing party of Italy’s new Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is a staunch supporter of Ukraine.
The two other key members of the ruling coalition, Matteo Salvini and Silvio Berlusconi, are more ambivalent, both having historical ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
(Reporting by Alvise Armellini; editing by Gianluca Semeraro and Jason Neely)
