Italian government splits over aid to Kyiv after joining Abu Dhabi

The Italian government coalition has split over the military aid to Ukraine, just after Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni secured a seat for Rome in the peace talks session in Abu Dhabi.

On Tuesday 10 November the thirteenth aid package for Ukraine is presented to Copasir (Parliamentary Committee for the Security of the Republic) by Defence Minister Guido Crosetto, but League Economy Minister GiancarloGiorgetti is biding his time over signing the new measure, as the procedure would require.

Within the governing majority, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and Crosetto himself tend to play down the incident, citing the minister’s absence, as on Monday he had been in Brussels for Ecofin. Tajani goes so far as to specify that, since the document is classified, it has to be signed in person and cannot be signed electronically.

Defence Minister Guido Crosetto has also spoken about Italian and European strategy for Ukraine, in an interview with the daily newspaper Repubblica. The Defence chief, who says he is convinced that Giorgetti will sign the aid package as soon as he returns from Brussels, has defended the need to continue supporting Kyiv

He also stressed the need for Europe to maintain a common position, as requested by Meloni, and reiterated that “excluding a physical presence in Ukraine of European troops has always been our caveat“. Sources at Palazzo Chigi reiterate the point even after the start of talks in Abu Dhabi: “Europe must speak with a single voice and equip itself with a clear and shared mandate“.

The row has broken out, however, because Deputy Prime Minister and Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini has repeatedly voiced his reservations about military aid to Kyiv, despite Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has always remained firm (together with FI) on the need to continue supporting Kyiv “for as long as necessary”.

A line that has become tighter after the League congress that reconfirmed him as secretary. League senator Claudio Borghi, in fact, steps up the pressure on X, calling the thirteenth aid package for Ukraine the “decree that does not exist (because an act that requires joint approval by several ministers does not exist until it has been signed by them)”.

Without the signature of League minister Giorgetti, the decree cannot be published and the aid, not only military but also civilian, cannot be sent. This risks opening a delicate battle within the majority on this issue, which could turn into a clash whose consequences are still hard to make out.

What could be in the thirteenth aid package for Ukraine

On the list of measures in the decree (classified like all the previous ones) there will in fact not only be aid for Ukrainian civilians, such as generators, but probably also weapons for air defence. Since the Franco-Italian Samp-T battery has already been supplied in the past, there could therefore be a shipment of Aster missiles that arm the system.

Within the majority, many are convinced that in the end the minister will sign, also because otherwise the experience of the centre-right government would come dangerously close to the end of the line. A scenario that could prove catastrophic, not only for the European balance. The Italian government is in the middle of the budget session and a crisis at this point would risk sweeping away the budget plan as well.

Why the so-called framework decree introduced by Draghi is important

Moreover, the decree-law that serves as a “framework” for this mechanism, which then provides for the ministerial decree with the joint approval of Defence, Farnesina and the Economy and Finance Ministry, will also expire at the end of the year. This is a scheme introduced by the Draghi government in 2022 and already renewed four times with only a few small adjustments, regardless of the governing majority.

After being adopted in the Council of Ministers, those framework decrees were converted into law by the Houses of Parliament, allowing in four years the dispatch of twelve military aid packages through as many interministerial measures, for which only a briefing to the Parliamentary Committee for the Security of the Republic is required.

The last aid package to Kyiv was sent at the end of 2025. A few days after Christmas last year, now eleven months ago, the government adopted a new “framework” decree that authorises the shipment of supplies, both military and civilian, to Ukraine for the whole of 2026.

Source: www.euronews.com