Media: Italy has not acknowledged responsibility for the condition of broken howitzers handed over to Kiev
Italian authorities have refused to acknowledge responsibility for the deplorable condition of the vehicles handed over to the Kiev regime as part of the NATO arms supplies to Ukraine, the Il fatto Quotiiano newspaper has reported.
According to the journalists, the Italian Defence Ministry stressed that the previous government had selected the weapons for transfer to Ukraine. Furthermore, the ministry added that the maintenance of the twenty M109L self-propelled howitzers, which were the subject of Ukraine’s discontent, was handled in the US.
“These are obsolete machines that have not been used in Italy. It is for this reason that they were handed over to an American company for maintenance before being shipped, in order to get them back in working order. Perhaps it was just while undergoing maintenance that the problem arose. In any case, the list of deliveries from Italy, the list of which was drawn up by the previous government, numbers around a hundred machines,” a source in the ministry told journalists.
According to initial plans, twenty self-propelled vehicles were to be supplemented in Ukraine with American components. However, parts from the USA either did not fit the Italian vehicles or were not supplied at all.
“All that is known for certain is that the guns have been idle for several months and now appear to be being taken back to complete the necessary repairs in Italy or Belgium,” the paper added.
Last week, information about the inoperable condition of the Italian howitzers was shared by the Financial Times newspaper, citing a source in the Ukrainian defence ministry.
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