The United States will temporarily suspend the delivery of Patriot missiles to allies that had already promised them and will instead send those interceptors to Ukraine, given that country’s critical need to reinforce its air defense against Russian attacks. “We know that Ukraine urgently needs those additional capabilities. We have provided them with a series of air defense systems and interceptor missiles from our own arsenals, including the Patriot system and NASAMS; many of our partners and allies too. But obviously more is needed, and it is needed now,” said the spokesman for the White House National Security Council, John Kirby, in a telephone press conference.
“The United States Government has made the difficult but necessary decision to redirect deliveries of military sales of Patriots and NASAMS missiles committed to other countries to send them, instead, to Ukraine” so that the invaded State can count on the equipment it needed to repel the Russian invasion, as announced by the spokesman. kyiv will begin receiving these supplies at the end of summer. This makes it inevitable that in the coming months, “at the end of summer and autumn”, there will be delays in delivery to other friendly countries. But the pause is merely temporary and the purchasing countries will eventually receive their orders, Kirby insisted. Washington – he promised – will do everything possible to keep the interruptions as minimal as possible.
The Patriot are the most advanced air defense systems that the United States has. They are made up of a system of radars and launchers that can fire interceptor missiles against enemy projectiles or aircraft.
These equipment are among the military equipment that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has demanded more insistently since this spring, when Russia has begun to intensify its offensive and has made progress in the Kharkov area. His Government considers that he needs at least seven of them to protect the entire territory of his country; So far it has at least four, contributed by the United States and Germany. The United States is putting pressure on allies that have this equipment to provide it to kyiv.
The White House announcement comes after President Joe Biden last week signed with Zelensky in Italy, on the sidelines of the annual G-7 summit, a bilateral defense agreement for the next decade.
The affected governments are already on notice about the delays in the arrival of their Patriots, according to Kirby, who did not want to list which nations will see the arrival of the purchased missiles delayed, and limited himself to indicating that it is “a series of countries”. He did specify that among them is not Taiwan, one of the territories that Washington considers a priority in its supply of weapons so that the island can defend itself from a possible attack from China. Neither will Israel.
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“This decision demonstrates our commitment to supporting our partners when they face an existential threat. “The United States firmly believes that this is the best path right now to support Ukraine, while ensuring that other partners receive, albeit behind schedule, the air defense missiles and military capabilities they have committed to acquiring.” , indicated the spokesperson. “If Russia thinks it will resist more than those of us who support Ukraine, it is very wrong,” he emphasized.
At the same time that Washington announced its new step to reinforce the Ukrainian air defense, one of the most vulnerable points of the invaded country’s forces, Romania also confirmed that it will donate a Patriot system to kyiv, after several weeks of uncertainty due to maintaining serious reserves, according to a statement from his presidency. But in exchange it demands that its allies, especially the United States, deliver another “similar or equivalent” battery.
With this announcement, Romania joins Germany, which had already announced the shipment of another additional battery, and Holland, which will also deliver another, assembled from multiple components sent by different countries. The United States has also committed an additional system. Spain announced in April the contribution of Patriot missiles to Ukraine, although so far it has avoided giving up any of the three batteries it has.
The Romanian Ministry of Defense presented to the Supreme Council of National Defense (CSAT), led by President Klaus Iohannis, a detailed analysis on the situation of the four Patriot long-range surface-to-air missile systems, the development of the provision program with the other three systems and their operational importance in the country and within NATO, as well as the impact generated by a possible transfer of a system.
The authorities in Bucharest decided to send a Patriot anti-aircraft system to kyiv “in view of the significant deterioration of the security situation in Ukraine, as a result of Russia’s constant and massive attacks against civilians and civil infrastructure, especially in the energy sector, as well as the regional consequences of this situation, including the security of Romania.”
Instead, “this donation is made on the condition that our country continues its negotiations with allies, especially with the American strategic partner, in order to obtain a similar or equivalent system, which responds to the need to guarantee the protection of the national airspace, to modernize the Romanian army and guarantee interoperability with the NATO system, while at the same time it is necessary to identify a temporary solution to cover the operational vulnerability thus created,” the note continues.
In 2017, Romania ordered seven Patriot systems from the United States worth $4 billion, about €3.7 billion, of which it has only delivered four so far. Of them, only two are operational, while the third could be used from the end of the year and the fourth at the beginning of 2025.
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