NATO countries will provide Ukraine with additional air defense (air defense) systems, Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said. According to him, this will happen in the near future.The decision was made by the defense ministers of the bloc’s countries at a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council.
Stoltenberg noted that the Alliance members had made an inventory of their air defense systems and came to the conclusion that they could transfer some of them to Ukraine without jeopardizing their own security. We are talking not only about the American Patriot air defense systems, but also about the Franco-Italian SAMP/T. Stoltenberg did not give specific figures.
At the same time, NATO countries that do not have available air defense systems have promised to provide funds to buy them for Ukraine, he added. Kyiv will also receive spare parts and missiles for its existing installations.
Stoltenberg reiterated that NATO considers Ukraine’s strikes on military targets deep inside Russian territory legitimate. “We have to remember what this is. This is a war, a war of aggression by Russia attacking its neighbor… Ukraine has a right to self-defense. And it includes strikes on legitimate military targets outside of Ukraine”, he said. For example, Stoltenberg believes it is justified for the AFU to shoot down planes that Russia uses to launch missiles at Ukraine.
In recent months, Kykv has been asking Western allies to help it strengthen the country’s air defense as quickly as possible as Russia has stepped up strikes on Ukrainian cities and has once again begun targeting energy infrastructure. For example, two large thermal power plants were destroyed in the spring: the Zmiiv thermal power plant in Kharkiv region and the Trypillia thermal power plant in Kyiv region.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia managed to do this because the AFU ran out of air defense shells amid a lack of assistance from partners. He emphasized that Kyiv needed supplies of Patriot systems and missiles to them most of all, noting that 25 such systems “with 6-8 batteries each” would be enough to protect the country’s territory.
On 11 April, the European Parliament refused to approve the EU Council budget until Ukraine receives additional Patriot systems. After that, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced his intention to send Kyiv another Patriot system.Other unnamed European countries also pledged to transfer six systems.
At the same time, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba claimed that the allies had more than 100 Patriot batteries that they could sacrifice to protect Kyiv. The minister also said that Ukraine was ready to rent these installations from Western countries.
