Italy will not send soldiers to
Ukraine after French President Emmanuel Macron said NATO should
send ground troops if the Russian break through the Ukrainian
lines and Kyiv calls for help, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani
said Friday.
"We have always said that we are not at war with Russia and
therefore we will not send Italian soldiers to fight in
Ukraine", said Tajani, who is also deputy premier as well as
leader of the centre-right post Berlusconi Forza Italia (FI)
party, part of Premier Giorgia Meloni's ruling rightwing
coalition with her Brothers of Italy (FdI) party and Deputy
Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini's League party.
Responding in Reggio Calabria to a question from journalists on
Macron's statement that western boots on the ground might be
necessary in Ukraine, Tahani said: "We defend the right of
Ukraine to be an independent state.
"But we are not, I repeat, at war with Russia. Our position is
always this. We have never changed our mind. We defend freedom,
independence, but we are working to build peace", he stressed.
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