The US plans to send another battery of the Patriot air defense system along with radars to the Ukrainian army. Ukraineʼs European allies are also considering supplying additional air defense systems from their stockpiles.
Bloomberg writes about this with reference to sources.
US President Joe Bidenʼs administration is working to send an additional Patriot air defense battery to Ukraine so Ukrainian defenders can fend off Russian airstrikes.
This week, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky informed US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who was visiting Kyiv, that two Patriot systems are needed just to protect Kharkiv and the Kharkiv region.
Money for the new Patriot system will likely come from the $61 billion aid package recently signed by Biden.
Jake Sullivan, the US presidentʼs national security adviser, said that the United States is pushing allies to send the Patriot to Ukraine as a "top priority."
- Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia in February 2022, Western countries have provided Ukraine with various air defense systems, all missiles can be shot down only by American Patriot air defense systems, of which the Ukrainian military has only three. At the end of February 2024, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the transfer of ten Patriot air defense systems to Kyiv would radically change the situation in the war. In April, he said that Ukraine needs 25 Patriot systems to completely close the sky from air attacks. Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba repeatedly called on foreign partners to transfer 5-7 Patriot systems to Ukraine and called this number the minimum necessary.