PARIS, Feb 3 France and Italy to send air defense system to Ukraine joint development of Samp/T — Mamba this spring, the French Ministry of Defense said in a communiqué.
It is reported that French and Italian Defense Ministers Sebastian Lecornu and Guido Crozetto had a telephone conversation on Friday.
«During the conversation, the ministers completed the technical discussions between France and Italy on the supply of the Samp/T — Mamba air defense system to Ukraine in the spring of 2023. This is the first European long-range anti-missile system of Franco-Italian development,» the communiqué says .
According to the French Ministry of Defense, this system «will allow Ukraine to defend itself against attacks by Russian drones, missiles and aircraft.»
Earlier, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said that the new air defense system for Ukraine, which Italy and France are going to provide, can be deployed in seven to eight weeks.
Earlier, Russia sent a note to NATO countries because of arms supplies to Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted that any cargo that contains weapons for Ukraine will become a legitimate target for Russia. The Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation stated that the NATO countries are «playing with fire» by supplying weapons to Ukraine. Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov noted that pumping Ukraine with weapons from the West would have a negative effect.