Italian deputy PM warns of WWIII scenario

Matteo Salvini has said that giving Ukraine weapons to strike targets on Russian soil could lead to a global war

Ukraine’s Western backers could trigger WWIII by providing Kiev with weapons that can be used to strike targets on Russian soil, Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini has said.

Russian officials have claimed that the Ukrainian military has been using Western-supplied weapons in their incursion in Kursk Region. Several Western media outlets have published articles with similar claims of late. A number of Kiev’s backers have also publicly given the green light to use the weapons they have provided on Russian soil.

Speaking to Il Sussidiario media outlet on Wednesday, Salvini, who is also the minister of infrastructure and transport and leads the Lega Nord (Northern League) party, said the “sending of weapons to strike and kill also on Russian territory would be a disaster, the antechamber of a dramatic world conflict.”

The deputy prime minister added that his right-wing party has nothing against providing “humanitarian and military aid to give Ukraine the possibility to defend itself.”

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Ahead of the European Parliament elections in June, Salvini urged Italians to not let left-wing parties win, as they, together with French President Emmanuel Macron, would make the prospect of a third world war dangerously real.

“I strongly ask for a vote against the war, to isolate dangerous bombers like Macron,” he said at the time. Salvini also praised the Italian government for its firm position against those in Europe who speak about potentially deploying Western troops to Ukraine, having previously criticized the French president for refusing to rule this out.

The deputy prime minister also stated in June that “we will no longer approve sending any type of weapon unless we have the certainty that those weapons will not be used to attack and kill inside Russia.”

“It would be the incident that takes us straight towards the Third World War,” he said at the time.

In late May, Defense Minister Guido Crosetto cited the Italian constitution, stressing that the weapons Italy supplies to Ukraine can only be used within the territory of the country.

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani echoed this, telling reporters: “we are not fighting against Russia. We are defending Ukraine, [it] is not the same.”

Around the same time, Salvini described NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg as a “dangerous gentleman” after he proposed allowing Kiev to strike targets deep inside Russia with Western weapons.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, too, expressed incredulity as to “why Stoltenberg said such a thing.”