WASHINGTON: The United States and its allies will provide to Ukraine five additional air defense systems, including Patriot missile batteries and Patriot components, the leaders of those countries said in a joint statement during the NATO summit in Washington.
US President Joe Biden also made the announcement in remarks at the summit. A joint statement was later issued by the leaders of the United States, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Romania, and Ukraine.
“We are providing Ukraine with more strategic air defense systems, including Patriot batteries donated by the US, Germany, and Romania; Patriot components donated by the Netherlands and other allies to enable the operation of an additional Patriot battery; and an additional SAMP-T system donated by Italy,” according to the joint statement.
They said that in the coming months, they want to provide Ukraine with dozens of tactical air defense systems. Washington, Kyiv’s main supporter, has provided over $50 billion in defense aid since 2022. But US aid was delayed in Congress for several months over the winter, and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky said a shortage of arms was giving Moscow the upper hand.
Following battle lines remained mainly frozen since early in the conflict, Moscow made some advances in eastern Ukraine recently. President Zelensky has urged West to increase and expedite military help to Ukraine’s forces.
US legislation was adopted in April that provided $61 billion in funding to Kyiv. Earlier, President Zelensky said that he wanted to double Kyiv’s air defense capacity over the summer.
Kyiv has repeatedly called on West to provide more help with air defense as it faces attacks from Russian forces on cities and energy infrastructure.
Ukraine claimed Russia blasted the main children’s hospital in Kyiv with a missile on Monday and rained missiles down on other cities across Ukraine, killing 41 civilians in the deadliest wave of strikes for months.
Russia has denied targeting civilian population and civilian infrastructure, although its strikes have killed thousands of civilians since it launched its attack.
