Romanian President Klaus Iohannis signed a decree on the transfer of the Patriot system to Ukraine.
This is stated on his website.
Itʼs about the law on the implementation of the "Potential of ground-based air defense". After its publication, all that remained was for the Romanian government to issue an order on the transfer of the Patriot to Ukraine.
Back in June, Bucharest stated 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 said that it will deliver one of the seven systems in the 3+ configuration purchased from the USA. This is the most advanced version of the Patriot defense system, used by the US and almost 20 other NATO allies.
- 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 be shot down only by American Patriot air defense systems, the Ukrainian military has only a few such units. 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.