The government has doubled down on its repeated denial of any plan to deploy Italian/Nato troops to Ukraine to help it fight invader Russia, according to foreign minister Antonio Tajani.
"We have never contemplated sending Nato soldiers to Ukraine," Tajani told Italy's Mattino Cinque News.
"We have never discussed this at all...we are not at war with Russia and are working for peace. We when we help Ukraine's defend itself we are upholding its right to be free country," he continued.
"That is a different matter from going to war with Russia," Tajani underlined.
Russia's president Vladimir Putin has ordered military exercise that will include practice for the use of tactical nuclear weapons, in response to provocative threats from "certain" western officials, the country's defence ministry said on Monday.
The military exercise is aimed at ensuring Russia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, according to the statement.
France's president Emanuel Macron has been threatening to send French troops to Ukraine for months and last week reportedly sent some 100 Foreign legion soldiers to the battlefield in the Donetsk region, in eastern Ukraine.
Paris intends to strengthen this contingent in the near future to around 1,500 men, according to reports, which cite US and Russian officials.
UK foreign minister David Cameron said during a visit to Kyiv last week it will be able to use British long-range weapons to strike targets inside Russia — a possibility that some other NATO countries providing weapons have balked at.
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