Ukraine war fatigue fuels defense-spending downgrade plan in Italy

ROME — Italian military planners risk losing out on €8 billion ($9 billion) in funding as government and opposition parties seek to cut both defense spending and support for Ukraine. The plans to limit spending emerged this week as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni continues to be squeezed between NATO spending targets and voter opposition to spending tax payers’ cash on arms not hospitals. The possible €8 billion shortfall is tied up with Italy’s hot-and-cold approach to a European Union scheme to allow states to exempt a quantity of defense spending from their calculations of annual…