Rome, 4 July (LaPresse) – ‘Trump got what he wanted, namely a theoretical commitment to increase spending to 5 per cent of GDP, and a week later he is ready to block arms sales to Ukraine. The situation is serious.’ This was stated by Paolo Gentiloni, former Prime Minister and European Commissioner, in an interview with La Stampa. ‘Europe finds itself caught between two fires,’ he added, "a situation unprecedented in eighty years. On the one hand, there is the Russian invasion, which a quarter of European countries see as a threat to their territorial integrity: the withdrawal of many from the Ottawa agreement on the ban on anti-personnel mines is proof of this. At the same time, the United States is not only disengaging from Ukraine, but also challenging us economically and commercially.‘ ’Many things can be done,‘ he continued, ’such as accelerating the joint defence financing project and finding a short-term solution to avoid blocking supplies to Ukraine. I read about attempts to get Kiev to purchase weapons systems through some European countries that could resell them. I hope this is a viable solution, because in two or three months, the Patriot batteries could run out of missiles, and today they are essential for the air defence of Kiev and Lviv. There is no point beating around the bush: these are kind gifts from Trump to Putin."