Kiev says it needs more of the costly air-defense systems than Washington can provide
Patriot air defense systems of the German Bundeswehr armed forces are deployed at Vilnius Airport in Vilnius, Lithuania, July 7, 2023 © AFP / Petras Malukas
The US is “actively and urgently” trying to source Patriot air defense systems for Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday. While Kiev demands at least two of the billion-dollar systems to defend Kharkov alone, reports suggest that Washington is prepared to donate only one.
“We are intensely focused on Patriots and other forms of air defense, and making sure that we can find them and bring them to Ukraine,” Blinken said at a joint press conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba in Kiev.
“Kharkov of course is one urgent priority,” he continued. “There are others. All I can tell you is this is something we discussed in detail, and that we’re actively and urgently working on.”
Kharkov is Ukraine’s second-largest city, and is situated in a large region of eastern Ukraine of the same name. Since last Friday, Russian troops have stormed through the region, seizing dozens of towns and villages and moving to within artillery range of the city. On Wednesday morning, the Russian Defense Ministry announced the capture of Glubokoye and Lukyantsy, two villages close to the Ukraine-Russia border.
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“We need, today, two Patriots for Kharkov,” Zelensky told Blinken when he met the US diplomat on Tuesday.
Ukraine received one Patriot battery from the US in 2022, while Germany promised last month to send another. Germany and the Netherlands jointly donated a Patriot battery last year, and there is believed to be another one operational in the country, according to Bloomberg. At least one of these batteries was damaged or destroyed in a Russian hypersonic missile strike last year.
Each Patriot battery comprises a power plant, radar and control stations, truck-mounted missile launchers, and support vehicles, and costs around $1 billion. While the $60 billion military aid package recently passed by the US Congress could pay for several of these systems, they are in short supply.
The US has around 60 Patriot batteries in service, according to figures compiled by the Congressional Research Service last year. When the 18 other countries that operate the Patriot are taken into account, there are around 250 batteries in service around the world, according to Raytheon, which jointly manufactures the system with Lockheed Martin.
READ MORE: Here’s why Russia’s Kharkov offensive is far more than just a military setback for Kiev
Zelensky claimed last month that Ukraine would need 25 Patriot batteries, each comprising between six and eight launchers. While Zelensky later revised this figure down to “at least seven,” he was told by US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan that Washington could not spare any without undermining its own security.
However, US officials are now considering sparing a single battery, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. Neither the Pentagon nor the White House commented on the report.
Moscow has repeatedly argued that no one Western weapons system will change the outcome of the Ukraine conflict. Instead, the Kremlin has warned that these weapons will only prolong the bloodshed and increase the risk of a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO.
