ROME, November 14. /TASS/. Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure Matteo Salvini, who leads the Lega party, has once again expressed skepticism about weapons supplies to Kiev.

"A corruption scandal has broken out that involves the Ukrainian government, so I wouldn’t want the money of our workers and retirees to be spent on feeding corruption. I don’t think that weapons supplies will solve the problem. Believing that providing Ukraine with weapons will help it retake the territories it lost is, at the very least, naive," he noted at a public event in Naples.

Salvini also pointed to Russia’s achievements on the battlefield and the peace efforts of US President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV. In his view, Ukraine and Russia should settle the issue of territories between themselves.

The Italian media outlets report that the position of Salvini and his Lega party has been keeping Italy from purchasing weapons from the US under the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List, or PURL, initiative, and that this has led to the cancellation of Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto’s visit to the United States, which was scheduled for the end of the week. Meanwhile, Crossetto has indirectly responded to Salvini’s remark from Berlin, where he is participating in a meeting with his counterparts from Germany, the UK, France, and Poland. He particularly said that he "wouldn’t judge a country based on a couple of corrupt individuals who belong in jail." Earlier, the Italian minister said that Rome was working on its 12th package of military assistance for Kiev.

Since the start of Russia’s special military operation, Kiev’s Western allies have significantly increased weapons supplies to Ukraine, providing it with one aid package after another. However, Kiev keeps asking for more weapons. Moscow has repeatedly stressed that Western military supplies to Kiev and assistance in the training of Ukrainian troops only prolong the conflict but cannot change the situation on the battlefield.