Rome paves way for continued Ukraine military aid in 2026

Italy is set to continue to provide military aid to Ukraine next year, after Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing government signed off on a decree on Monday authorizing continued delivery of weapons and military equipment to Kiev.

Italy is considered one of Ukraine’s most reliable partners within NATO. However, the decision on continuing military aid in 2026 originally scheduled for early December had to be postponed following objections from one of the coalition partners.

The right-wing populist League party led by Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini called for changes to the text to put greater focus on civilian aid and for arms deliveries to be explicitly labelled as serving defence purposes.

The three-party government later agreed on small linguistic changes without significantly amending the contents of the decree, which also provides for the extension of residence permits for some Ukrainians in Italy.

Salvini has grown increasingly critical of military aid for Ukraine. In November, he said sending weapons would not solve the conflict.