American Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday encouraged the states that have Patriot anti-aircraft systems to donate them to Ukraine, which is waiting for more weapons for anti-aircraft defense against Russia, reports AFP, according to Agerpres.
“There are countries that have Patriot (batteries), and what we’re doing is continuing to mobilize those countries,” Austin said at a House hearing.
“I myself have spoken with the leaders of several countries, right here, in the last two weeks, to encourage them to provide more equipment,” he continued, without specifying which countries they were.
Germany announced earlier this month that it would supply Kiev with another Patriot battery, the third of its kind to Ukraine since the war with Russia began. The other EU member states that have such systems are Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain and Sweden.
The subject was brought up last week at a meeting of European foreign and defense ministers, who promised to increase aid to Ukraine in air defense, but without announcing new commitments to supply American Patriot systems, which Kiev has been insisting on.
Officials from the countries that have such systems state that it is difficult to provide them to Ukraine, as they are an integral part of the national air defense systems.
“We don’t have enough Patriot (systems) to be able to offer them at the moment,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk explained. “No one expects this from Poland, as a front-line state (…), everyone understands that we have to protect our own airspace, including in incidents related to Russian missiles,” he argued.
Tags: urges allies supply Ukraine Patriot antiaircraft systems
