Ukraine has already received the Patriot anti-missile defense system, which was provided by the NATO country Romania.
This was stated by the spokesman of the Ministry of Defense of Romania Constantin Spinu, Radio Svoboda reports.
"We confirm that the Patriot system has arrived in Ukraine," Romanian Defense Ministry spokesman said in a comment to Radio Svoboda.
The day before, on October 2, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Romania for the Patriot systems.
"I thank every country that helps us with air defense. Special thanks to Romania for the Patriot systems. Together, we can achieve even greater efficiency — we can put an end to Russian terror by jointly destroying the Shaheds and missiles," Zelensky wrote.
Prior to this, the transfer of the Patriot system to Ukraine was consistently supported by the government, parliament and president of Romania.
What preceded?
In June, Bucharest said it would hand over one of its two operational 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.
Romaniaʼs Defense Ministry said it would deliver one of the seven systems in the 3+ configuration purchased from the United States. 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 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.
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