The Ministry of Defense announced on Twitter that it was handing over a Patriot fire unit and an ammunition pact to Ukraine. The support comes in close cooperation with the allies. Almost simultaneously, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov welcomed the arrival of the three air defense systems announced by Germany, the USA and the Netherlands on Twitter with the words “Today our beautiful Ukrainian skies will be safer because Patriot air defense systems have arrived in Ukraine”. He thanked the Defense Ministers and the American, Dutch and German people. The image distributed with the message shows three German launcher vehicles.
At the end of 2022, the United States announced that it would hand over a Patriot fire unit to Ukraine. Germany and the Netherlands joined in January and also announced that they would each hand over a fire unit. After the rough schedule was set, the training of the Ukrainian soldiers began in Germany - probably at the artillery school in Idar-Oberstein - and in the USA at the US Army Artillery School in Oklahoma. Finally, the soldiers were brought together for a joint exercise in an undisclosed NATO country.
The Patriot systems are part of the existing air defense structure, which includes the IRS-T SLM air defense systems, the first of which was delivered in October 2022 and the second a few days ago. Another two IRIS-T SLM are still committed and should be handed over by early 2024.
According to the Mayor of Kiev, Vitali Klitschko, the IRS-T SLMs successfully protected the capital and saved thousands of lives during Russian airstrikes. Now the air defense can be further expanded to protect other cities and important infrastructure.
Gerhard Heiming
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