The lower house of the Romanian Parliament supported the law that allows the transfer of the Patriot anti-missile defense system to Ukraine. The day before, the draft law was supported by the countryʼs government.
This is reported by Reuters.
Next, the President of Romania Klaus Iohannis must sign the draft law — after that, the government will issue an order on the transfer of Patriot to Ukraine.
In June, Bucharest informed that it would hand over one of its two Patriot systems to Ukraine on the condition that the allies replace it with a similar air defense system. The "Romanian" Patriot is part of the air defense equipment that NATO countries have promised to provide to Ukraine.
The Ministry of Defense of Romania notes that it will deliver one of the seven systems in the 3+ configuration purchased from the USA. It is the most advanced version of the Patriot defense system and is used by the US and nearly 20 other NATO allies.
In 2017, Romania signed an agreement with the United States to purchase seven Patriot systems worth $4 billion. The first batch was delivered in 2020. Romania currently has four Patriot systems, two of which are already operational.
- In early summer, Kyiv actively urged allies to transfer additional Patriot systems and other air defense equipment to Ukraine to defend against Russian attacks.
- 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 only be shot down by American Patriot air defense systems, of which the Ukrainian military has only a few. The Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba has repeatedly called on foreign partners to transfer 5-7 Patriot systems to Ukraine and called this number the minimum necessary. 25 Patriot systems are needed to fully protect the sky over Ukraine.