Germany has already given Ukraine a quarter of its available Patriot air defense systems and cannot provide more, but Berlin is looking to buy such systems from partners to transfer them to Ukraine.
This was stated by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius to journalists ahead of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting on Wednesday in Brussels.
“We’ve been actively working on this for months. Germany has provided a quarter of its Patriot systems. I made it clear to my colleagues last week that we are not in a position to give any more. But we are reaching out to the United States and other allies to ask them to supply Patriot systems or similar ones. We also offered, in each individual case, to consider covering the cost of systems that would be provided — simply because speed matters now, and waiting for manufacturer deliveries takes too much time,” Pistorius said, commenting on the possibility of supplying Ukraine with new Patriot air defense systems.
The German defense minister emphasized that strengthening and supporting Ukraine’s air defense capabilities has been a priority from the very beginning. Against this backdrop, he announced the launch of a new phase of the “Immediate Action on Air Defense” initiative to bolster Ukraine’s air defenses.
“Last year, it was a major financial success: we managed to raise around one billion euros from partners. We want to continue this Immediate Action on Air Defense initiative, hoping for the same or even greater success,” Pistorius stated.
