Italy Rejects Franco-British Plan to Deploy Troops to Ukraine

 

Italy Rejects Franco-British Plan to Deploy Troops to Ukraine

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has rejected the idea of deploying troops in Ukraine, after France and the UK proposed sending peacekeepers to secure an eventual truce between Kiev and Moscow. Meloni expressed her opposition during an address to the upper house of the Italian parliament on Tuesday, ahead of a European Council meeting in Brussels this week expected to discuss the Ukraine conflict.

France and the UK have been leading efforts to form a “coalition of the willing,” with French President Emmanuel Macron suggesting that “a few thousand troops per country” would be deployed at key locations in Ukraine. Meloni said the Italian government respected the proposal but was not “convinced” by it.

“Sending Italian troops to Ukraine is a topic that has never been on the agenda,” Meloni told the Senate, as cited by la Repubblica. The prime minister went on to describe the Franco-British proposal as “a very complex, risky and ineffective option.” She also stated that Italy supported the peace-making effort launched by US President Donald Trump. – RT

Our Take: And the fracturing begins.

Make no mistake, this is the beginning of the end of NATO.

Starmer and Macron – perhaps unwittingly – are establishing a new mandate for Europe's "defensive" alliance, effectively proposing to launch an offensive campaign, given that Ukraine is technically not a part of NATO, and NATO is technically not part of this conflict.

This mandate will require all NATO alliance members to offer up soldiers, and as Meloni of Italy (among others) is demonstrating, the appetite for war is not unanimous across the continent.

The question is, how will NATO leadership – and EU leadership, for that matter – respond to defiance in the ranks? If Meloni holds her ground, and demonstrates that NATO has no real power to enforce its call for troops, then why should any member-nation sacrifice its soldiers for a lost cause in a non-member nation? – GhostofBasedPatrickHenry