{"id":1922587,"date":"2023-05-02T05:12:49","date_gmt":"2023-05-02T09:12:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/italian-weapons-sent-to-ukraine-not-battle-ready\/"},"modified":"2023-05-02T05:15:31","modified_gmt":"2023-05-02T09:15:31","slug":"italian-weapons-sent-to-ukraine-not-battle-ready","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/italian-weapons-sent-to-ukraine-not-battle-ready\/","title":{"rendered":"Italian Weapons Sent to Ukraine Not \u201cBattle Ready\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fitalian-weapons-sent-to-ukraine-not-battle-ready%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1922587&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Italian Weapons Supplied to Ukraine Deemed Not Battle-Ready<\/h2>\n<h3>Europe&#8217;s Military Hardware Effectiveness Questioned Again<\/h3>\n<p>Reports from Kyiv sources speaking to the Financial Times reveal that weapons provided to Ukraine from NATO country Italy are not battle-ready. Every one of the 20 howitzer artillery guns supplied to Ukraine from Rome was deemed not to be battle-ready at the time they were supplied, according to a source inside the Ukrainian defence ministry. This follows claims from Russian sources reported earlier this month by Newsweek magazine that Leopard 2 main battle tanks were deemed unfit for purpose on the battlefield in Ukraine and were in desperate need of repair and refurbishment.<\/p>\n<h3>Political Pitfalls for the Government of Giorgia Meloni<\/h3>\n<p>The reports of ineffective Italian weaponry will likely come as an embarrassment for the government of Giorgia Meloni, given that she has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/italian-weapons-sent-to-ukraine-not-battle-ready\/\" title=\"Italian Weapons Sent to Ukraine Not \u201cBattle Ready\u201d\">spent considerable political capital domestically<\/a> to support the war effort against Russia. In order to have the weapons shipments approved in the first place, Meloni had to manoeuvre past objections from both of her coalition partners, former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who has had a longstanding friendship with Russia&#8217;s Vladimir Putin, as well as her deputy PM Matteo Salvini, who has also questioned if Western efforts in the region were doing more harm to the people of Italy than Moscow.<\/p>\n<h3>Continued Support for Zelensky and the Government in Kyiv<\/h3>\n<p>Despite political opposition, Meloni has continued to double down on her support for Zelensky and the government in Kyiv. She argues that the European Union should speed up its accession process to allow Ukraine to join the bloc in an accelerated time frame as compensation for the country supposedly defending Europe from Russian aggression. Ukraine &#8220;is an outpost for the security of the European continent,&#8221; Meloni said in a press conference with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal in Rome on Wednesday. &#8220;The smartest way to thank Ukrainians for what they are doing is to accelerate the possibility for them to become part of the European institutions.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Demands for American-Made Military Hardware<\/h3>\n<p>The reports of ineffective Italian weaponry perhaps explain the persistent demands from the Zelensky government for Washington to supply them with American-made military hardware, such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/why-america-needs-the-b-21-raider-stealth-bomber\/\" title=\"Why America Needs the B-21 Raider Stealth Bomber\">long-range precision-guided missiles<\/a> and F-16 fighter jets, both of which the U.S. has apparently been hesitant to hand over to the Ukrainians.<\/p>\n<h3>Public Opinion in Italy<\/h3>\n<p>The otherwise populist-oriented government of Meloni has also bucked public opinion, with a February poll finding that a plurality of Italians, 45 per cent, were opposed to sending weapons to Ukraine, compared to 34 per cent in support. Belying the potential political pitfalls, even 47 per cent of Meloni&#8217;s Brother&#8217;s of Italy said that they were against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-white-house-halted-ukraine-military-aid-ahead-of-putin-meeting\/\" title=\"Biden White House Halted Ukraine Military Aid Ahead Of Putin Meeting\">military aid packages<\/a> to Ukraine.<\/p>\n<h3>Summary<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Italian weapons supplied to Ukraine are not battle-ready<\/li>\n<li>Reports of ineffective Italian weaponry may explain persistent demands for American-made military hardware<\/li>\n<li>Giorgia Meloni&#8217;s government has faced political opposition to supporting the war effort against Russia<\/li>\n<li>Despite opposition, Meloni continues to support Zelensky and the government in Kyiv<\/li>\n<li>Public opinion in Italy is divided on sending weapons to Ukraine<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>-ready. This has raised concerns about the quality of military equipment being provided by NATO countries to Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>Exciting news! Italy, a NATO country, has provided weapons to Ukraine. However, sources in Kyiv have revealed to the Financial Times that these weapons are not battle-ready. Shockingly, all 20 howitzer artillery guns supplied by Rome have been deemed unfit for battle. This has sparked a debate about the effectiveness of Europe&#8217;s military hardware and the quality of equipment being provided to Ukraine by NATO countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1922588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[6731,8884,5066,6991,7788],"class_list":["post-1922587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-battle","tag-italian","tag-ready","tag-ukraine","tag-weapons"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1922587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1922587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1922587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1922588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1922587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1922587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1922587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}