Trump 'completely wrong' to restrict support for Ukraine, Italian minister tells BBC

Trump ‘completely wrong’ to restrict support for Ukraine, Italian minister tells BBC

Defence Minister Guido Crosetto has warned against showing any weakness to Russia’s Vladimir Putin

Italy’s defence minister has said it would be a “complete mistake, a major mistake” for the US to restrict access to satellite systems and intelligence that Ukraine uses to defend itself against Russian attacks.

In a BBC interview, Guido Crosetto said any such step by US President Donald Trump’s administration “makes absolutely no sense” and would risk dragging out Russia’s full-scale invasion instead of helping to end it.

US officials have said Trump has not requested a slowdown in the internet speeds the US supplies to Ukraine and which are crucial to its war effort. Trump has also denied that the US has stopped sharing early-warning alerts about incoming Russian air attacks with Ukraine.

Crosetto’s remarks add to Italy’s increasingly sharp criticism of the US.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni described Trump’s deal to buy diesel from Russia as a “very risky choice”, saying it would “grant Russia legitimacy” while it bombed cities in Ukraine.

Trump struck the deal with Vladimir Putin, blaming Kyiv’s own attacks on Russian refineries for the rise in fuel prices.

Meloni, once seen as so close to the US president that she was called a “Trump whisperer”, said the move went against efforts to bring Putin to the negotiating table.

“Peace will come when Putin is convinced there is a stalemate, that he cannot advance any further,” her defence minister told the BBC at his ministry building in Rome.

Crosetto was a co-founder of Meloni’s hard-right Fratelli d’Italia party, which has led a right-wing governing coalition since 2022, shortly after Russia’s full-scale war began.

“If [Putin] sees weakness on the Ukrainian side – and if the US deprives Ukraine of resources, that creates weakness – then he will believe he can win. So he will continue the war,” Crosetto warned.

“I think that is completely wrong.”

Italy’s prime minister has become a close ally of Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky

Despite broad public scepticism, Meloni’s government has backed Ukraine strongly from the outset, sending both military and humanitarian assistance.

The details of those deliveries have always been classified.

In our interview, the defence minister pledged that Italian military support would continue “for as long as this government is in place”, though he said securing parliamentary approval for further deliveries would be “more difficult” as elections draw nearer.

The vote must be held by the end of 2027, and current opinion polls place a new far-right party, Futuro Nazionale, ahead of all of Meloni’s coalition partners.

Its leader, former general Roberto Vannacci, is openly sympathetic to Russia and opposes aid to Ukraine, arguing that Europe is wasting money while Russia’s military “continues to advance” on the ground.

At a recent event in Tuscany, he described himself as “neither pro-Putin nor pro-Russian” but “pro-Italian”.

Crosetto dismissed questions about Vannacci, including whether his views reflected those of many Italians, saying he had more “serious matters to deal with”.

But, perhaps to highlight the contrast, he was blunt about Russia.

“When one state crosses another state’s border with tanks, when it bombs hospitals and schools, kills civilians and bombs power plants, and has been doing so for four years, I can only describe that as evil,” he said.

Yet Italians, like many Europeans, are facing rising prices, driven by expensive energy.

During street protests in Rome on Friday, where firecrackers were thrown, secondary school students complained that money was being diverted to weapons instead of education.

Some chanted: “We want more classroom, not more bombs.”

In southern Italy, truckers have started blocking roads in protest at higher fuel prices.

Polls in Italy regularly show that a majority want military aid to Ukraine to end. One survey for the Ixè institute in September found support for continuing to supply weapons at just 18%.

There are many reasons for that, from a long-standing pacifist tradition to a history of close business ties with Moscow. Unlike Poland or the Baltic states, Italy also feels geographically far from the threat.

But the defence minister also blamed an active Russian disinformation campaign – targeting, he said, “certain political figures... and narratives to weaken the political climate against Russia”.

“In some way they shift public opinion,” the minister argued.

“It’s very hard to explain to a citizen who’s having trouble at the petrol pump that we can’t give any concessions to Russia right now. But that’s the only way to defend the future of that very citizen who’s complaining.”

Italy has not been hit by major sabotage attacks, unlike other European allies of Ukraine.

The minister said a fire at an arms depot outside Rome in August was not arson, but “human stupidity”.

A report last month that Russia was planning drone attacks on Italy, France and Spain from container ships in the Mediterranean was not proven, Crosetto also told us.

But cyber-attacks, which he linked to Russia, were now routine – “there are hundreds every day” – and he believed Europe had responded too weakly.

“You can’t win a war... if you don’t fight back,” the minister said.