>>>ANSA/We won't send soldiers to Ukraine -Tajani on Macron

(ANSA) - ROME, MAY 3 - Italy will not send soldiers to Ukraine after French President Emmanuel Macron said NATO should send ground troops if the Russian break through the Ukrainian lines and Kyiv calls for help, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Friday.
    "We have always said that we are not at war with Russia and therefore we will not send Italian soldiers to fight in Ukraine", said Tajani, who is also deputy premier as well as leader of the centre-right post Berlusconi Forza Italia (FI) party, part of Premier Giorgia Meloni's ruling rightwing coalition with her Brothers of Italy (FdI) party and Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini's League party.
    Responding in Reggio Calabria to a question from journalists on Macron's statement that western boots on the ground might be necessary in Ukraine, Tahani said: "We defend the right of Ukraine to be an independent state.
    "But we are not, I repeat, at war with Russia. Our position is always this. We have never changed our mind. We defend freedom, independence, but we are working to build peace", he stressed.
    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, quoted by Interfax, said: "The French president's words on the possible sending of troops to Ukraine represent a very dangerous trend and Moscow continues to closely monitor Paris' statements." Meanwhile Defence Minister Guido Crosetto stressed the need for the Italian Army to adapt to a changing world as the armed force celebrated its 163rd anniversary with a ceremony in Rome on Friday.
    "The challenge of change is the most difficult one," said Crosetto.
    "The world has changed, the army must adapt.
    "It is difficult to adapt, but this challenge does not only concern the defence (sector), but also parliament and all of the institutions, and industry too.
    "Before there was no rush, now there is no time to wait.
    "The time-frames are not dictated by our habits but by the needs that arise.
    "These are profound changes that affect everyone.
    "We thought that war had disappeared, but over the last two years war has returned to our home".
    Premier Giorgia Meloni was among the officials attending the ceremony for the anniversary at the 'Gen. C.A. Pietro Giannattasio' military hippodrome in Rome's Tor di Quinto district.
    President Sergio Mattarella, for his part, told Army Chief of Staff General Carmine Masiello on the occasion of the 163rd anniversary of the Italian Army that "In the geopolitical reality that we live in, where conflicts and wars undermine peace and now directly threaten the freedoms and security of Europe itself, the Army confirms itself as an essential element of our military instrument, in defence of the Republic and the values of its Constitution, and in support of international stability and coexistence". (ANSA).