World
Unclear numbers: What we know about Italian military aid to Ukraine
Arms sales by Italian companies to Ukraine have reached a total of just over €643 million since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
That’s a figure outlined in the Annual Report on Authorised Transit, Import and Export of Armaments which was submitted to parliament in spring. The document is a legal requirement, essential to ensure transparency on what for some is a particularly delicate economic activity.
According to the report, export authorisations to Ukraine grew significantly between 2022 and 2023, from just €3.8 million covering four authorisations to more than €417 million for 15 authorisations.
That value then dropped to just over €222 million in 2024 for just seven authorisations.
The report doesn’t specifiy which companies applied to export arms to Ukraine, nor is it known whether the transactions were actually carried out, although it is assumed that a large part of these sales actually went through.
Therefore, the report doesn’t help shine a light on which Italian manufacturers exported armaments to Ukraine.
However, it is known that the main players in the sector in Italy are RWM, Rehinmetall Italia and Leonardo. Euronews tried to contact Leonardo, asking if it was possible to find out if and what armaments had been sold to Ukraine, but there was no immediate answer.
Which kinda of weapons have been sold by Italian companies?
What is indicated in the report, however, is the type of armaments that have been exported.
In 2023, the €417 million of exports to Ukraine covered seven different categories: weapon systems above 12.7mm calibre, ammunition, fire direction equipment, land vehicles, toxic, chemical, biological, tear gas, radioactive materials, explosives and military fuels and finally electronic equipment.
As far as 2024 is concerned, the list is restricted to the first four categories.
However, these are not the only Italian arms that have reached Ukrainian territory. Those in the report to parliament are in fact only sales by Italian companies to Ukraine.
They do not, therefore, include military aid that has been granted as part of the aid packages prepared by the European Union, the next of which, the twelfth, is scheduled for early December.
‘Little transparency on the part of Italy’
“On this part, which is not covered by the report law 185/90, there has been little transparency on the part of Italy. Unlike what other European nations have decided,our country has in fact preferred not to provide any information about what has actually been supplied by our armed forces,” said Francesco Vignarca, spokesperson and activist of the Italian Network for Peace and Disarmament.
The information available is generally coming from the battlefield, based on what was actually seen at the Russian-Ukrainian front.
“It is difficult to estimate quantities and figures because many of these sales are secret,” said Eleaonora Tafuro Ambrosetti of the Ispi Institute for International Policy Studies.
“Between 2023 and 2024,” she adds, “Italy would have supplied Ukraine with Samp-T air defence batteries.”
Information kept secret so as not to give Russia an advantage
In comments to Euroenews, the press office of the Italian Defence Ministry confirmed that the “content” of Italian supplies as part of the packages to Kyiv is deliberately kept secret.
“Both Minister (Guido) Crosetto and his predecessor chose the same line, designed not to provide a technical advantage to Russia regarding what is on the battlefield. Only Copasir (the Parliamentary Committee for the Security of the Republic) is aware of this, but it too is required to maintain secrecy,” the ministry said.
It is even more difficult to quantify the value of what has been granted from the Italian armed forces’ arsenal.
“The mechanism envisaged by the European Union worked like this: each country that granted arms received a payment back from the EU itself, through the European Peace Facility fund. After a short time, however, it was clarified by Brussels that these funds would not be such as to allow the stocks to be replenished,” Francesco Vignarca of the Italian Network for Peace and Disarmament said.
This means that if a country sent more or less outdated equipment and vehicles to Ukraine and then wanted to buy new ones, it had to pay the difference between what it received from the EU and the purchase price.
This was stated by Defence Minister Guido Crosetto in a hearing before the joint Defence and Foreign Affairs Committees of the House and Senate. Even on this, however, no official figures were provided.
Italy contributed to the European Peace Facility
The Milex Observatory on Italian Military Expenditure indicated that “the only case ‘in the clear’ is that of artillery munitions.”
This accounts for €14.5 million that Article 33 of the Labour Decree of 2023 allocated to Agenzia Industrie Difesato “reinforce (munition) production to continue to respond to supplies to the Ukrainian armed forces without depleting national reserves.”
For the rest, as noted on several occasions by the Senate Budget Service and the Court of Auditors, there is little clarity as to how the disposals to Kyiv affect defence planning on the acquisition of armaments and related ammunitions.
Then there is the fact that Italy has granted €1.4 billion to the European Peace Facility**,** out of the total of €11.1 billion it has collected so far for Ukraine.
In the absence of precise data on how much the same fund has granted to Italy for the weapon systems it has sent, it is in short difficult to understand what the real cost of military support for Ukraine has been.
An estimate published in March 2023 by Milex, based on accessible sources, put the outlay for stockpile replenishment alone at around €1 billion.
World
Secret Service Agent Assigned to Jill Biden Shoots Self in Leg
A U.S. Secret Service agent assigned to former First Lady Jill Biden accidentally shot himself in the leg early on Friday near Philadelphia International Airport, according to a source familiar with the incident.
In a statement that did not mention Biden, the Secret Service said the incident occurred just after 8:30 a.m. EST and the agent suffered a non-life-threatening injury.
“There was no impact to the protectee’s movement and they were not present at the time of the incident,” the statement said.
The agent “accidentally discharged his firearm” while traveling in an unmarked SUV near the airport, Philadelphia Police Department Cpl. Jasmine Colón-Reilly said in a statement.
Emergency medical personnel responded to the scene and the agent was transported to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in stable condition, Colón-Reilly said.
“The Secret Service’s Office of Professional Responsibility will be reviewing the facts and circumstances of this incident,” the Secret Service said.
The Secret Service is responsible for providing security to current and former presidents, vice presidents and their families and foreign leaders and is also an investigative agency.
—
(Reporting by Christian Martinez in Los Angeles; editing by Scott Malone and Chris Reese)
World
Body found in search for missing American Airlines flight attendant in Colombia: mayor
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A mayor in Colombia announced that a corpse had been discovered and was likely that of an American citizen who had gone missing.
Eric Fernando Gutierrez Molina, a 32-year-old American Airlines flight attendant from Texas, had gone missing while in the foreign country, according to reports.
“Since last Sunday, we have been searching for Eric Gutiérrez, a U.S. citizen who is missing,” Medellín Mayor Federico Gutiérrez noted in a Friday post on X, according to a translation from Spanish.
AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT ATTENDANT VANISHES DURING COLOMBIA LAYOVER: ‘HIS FAMILY IS DESPERATE’
Medellin Mayor Federico Gutierrez speaks during a press conference on Dec. 19, 2025. (JAIME SALDARRIAGA / AFP via Getty Images)
“Unfortunately, a lifeless body has just been found between the municipality of Jericó and Puente Iglesias,” he noted.
“There is a very high probability that it is this person,” the mayor explained.
COLOMBIAN MILITARY PLANE CRASH KILLS AT LEAST 66, HEAD OF ARMED FORCES SAYS
Eric Fernando Gutierrez Molina (CDColExt/X)
“We are heartbroken by the tragic passing of our colleague,” American Airlines noted in a statement provided to Fox News Digital on Saturday.
‘AMERICAS COUNTER CARTEL COALITION’: INSIDE THE US STRATEGY TO COMBAT NARCO TERROR, CONFRONT CHINA, OTHER FOES
An American Airlines Airbus A321 departs from Harry Reid International Airport on March 11, 2026, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Kevin Carter/Getty Images)
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“Our thoughts and support are with his family, loved ones and colleagues during this difficult time, and we are doing all we can to assist Colombian law enforcement in its investigation,” the company added.
Fox News Digital’s Alexandra Koch contributed to this report
World
Hundreds of thousands march through London in stand against the far right
London, United Kingdom – Hundreds of thousands of people have marched through central London in what organisers are calling the largest ever demonstration against the far right in British history.
The Together Alliance march, backed by about 500 groups including trade unions, antiracism campaigners and Muslim representative bodies, brought together a diverse crowd of all ages from across the country on Saturday, converging on Whitehall near the Houses of Parliament.
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Organisers said that half a million people took part.
Kevin Courtney, chairman of the Together Alliance, told crowds the march “gives us all confidence to carry on.”
London’s Metropolitan Police put the figure considerably lower, at approximately 50,000, though officers acknowledged it was difficult to reach an accurate figure given how spread out the crowds were.
The protest was met with a far smaller group of counterprotesters waving Israeli flags and Iran’s pre-1979 monarchical flag.
Aadam Muuse, a trade union activist, told Al Jazeera that racism and Islamophobia had moved from the fringes into mainstream politics, and was “being pushed by parliamentarians”.
He said the march was “much needed to push back against [Reform leader Nigel] Farage and his ilk,” adding that the populist party “must be defeated at the ballot box”.
Al Jazeera’s Milena Veselinovic, reporting from the march, said demonstrators were pushing back against what they saw as “the politics of hate and division” in the United Kingdom.
One demonstrator, activist and writer Hamja Ahsan, told Al Jazeera he was motivated to attend after a rally organised by the far-right agitator-activist Tommy Robinson that drew 150,000 people and was marred by violence that injured several police officers. Robinson is reportedly planning another rally in May.
“We need to show them that we’re the majority,” Ahsan said. “At a street level, the far right won’t take over our streets.”
He said the atmosphere on Saturday was akin to the Notting Hill Carnival, as the march united people from all backgrounds, “from pensioners to children”.
Museum worker Charlotte Elliston told Al Jazeera that she also feels unsettled by the far right’s creeping rise.
“You think this would never happen here, and then all of a sudden this might happen,” she said. “You see that it is getting scary.”
Several left-wing politicians joined the demonstration.
Independent MP Jeremy Corbyn posted on X that the “problems we face are not caused by migrants or refugees”, arguing they were rooted instead in “an economic system rigged in favour of corporations and billionaires”.
MP Zarah Sultana said on X, “There’s one minority we should be angry at: the billionaires funding division while working class people can’t make ends meet.”
Green Party leader Zack Polanski, Dianne Abbott and Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham were also among the crowds.
‘Historic demonstration’
The rights group Amnesty UK hailed the “historic demonstration”, saying marchers were “calling for a different vision of society – one which places dignity, compassion and human rights at its heart”.
A separate march organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which assembled at Exhibition Road near Hyde Park, converged with the main demonstration during the afternoon.
Eighteen people were arrested outside New Scotland Yard on Saturday after staging a protest in support of Palestine Action, the protest group which remains proscribed under the Terrorism Act despite a High Court ruling in February that the government’s decision to ban it was unlawful.
The march comes amid rising racism as Farage’s Reform party surges in the polls.
Hope Not Hate, an antiracism campaign group, warned earlier in March that the British far right is now “bigger, bolder and more extreme than ever before”.
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