The government of Germany took the initiative to strengthen Ukrainian air defense.
This is reported by Tagesschau.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Defense Minister Boris Pistorius contacted NATO and EU partners to find new air defense systems for Ukraine as soon as possible. They also turned to third countries, but did not reveal which ones.
The spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the goal of the initiative is to find available air defense systems as soon as possible and immediately supply them to Ukraine.
- The authorities of Ukraine have been calling on allies for several weeks in a row to help with air defense systems and ammunition for them. There was a shortage in the troops, due to which Russian missile and drone attacks began to penetrate the defenses.
- On April 13, Germany announced that it would transfer to Ukraine another Patriot launcher and ammunition for existing air defense systems.
- On April 16, President Zelensky spoke about a significant shortage of anti-aircraft defense and the corresponding missiles. As an example, he cited the missile attack on the Trypilska TPP. It was attacked by 11 missiles, Ukraine was able to destroy seven of them, and four hit the target simply because the anti-aircraft defense ran out of missiles.
- Kyiv will request the convening of a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council in order to raise the issue of the transfer of air defense systems and ammunition to them.
- The strengthening of Ukraineʼs air defense will also be discussed at the EU special summit on April 17-18. The Chairman of the European Council Charles Michel in an official invitation, called on the heads of states and governments to urgently activate military aid. The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky will also join the summit via video link. As DW writes, it is expected that the provision of the Patriot air defense system will be discussed both on the sidelines and at the meeting itself.