Berlin is seeking six more Patriot air defense systems in addition to the one it had previously promised to transfer to Germany.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said this at a press conference on April 18 after the meeting of the European Council in Brussels.
He called on other NATO member states to follow Germanyʼs example to "provide better protection against the numerous attacks that Ukraine is currently suffering."
“Weʼve heard there should be seven more [Patriot] systems now. One of them is ours. And we hope that six more will be found in the context of NATO. And I also took the opportunity here to promote this issue in many discussions," emphasized Scholz.
- 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 Volodymyr Zelenskyi spoke about a significant shortage of air defense systems 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.
- On April 19 , a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council will be held with the participation of Zelenskyi. The priority issues of the meeting will be the strengthening of Ukraineʼs anti-aircraft defense and the supply of artillery ammunition.