Italy rules out sending troops to Ukraine, use of its weapons to strike inside Russia

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - The Italian foreign minister on Friday ruled out both sending troops to Ukraine and the use of Italian weapons to hit targets inside Russia.

"It's impossible for Italy to send soldiers to Ukraine also to use our weapons in Russia," Antonio Tajani said at the doorstep of the informal NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in the Czech capital Prague.

Stressing that they will continue to support Ukraine, the Italian minister, however, said that under Italy’s constitution, it is impossible to allow the use of its weapons to hit inside Russia and deploy troops to Ukraine.

"We are not fighting against Russia. We are defending Ukraine, (it) is not the same," he added.

Earlier, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that Ukraine has the right to self-defense and that includes also "the right to strike legitimate military targets inside Russia."