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| Bärbock: Germany's reserves of Patriot air defense systems for transferring them to Kyiv have been exhausted |
| 2024-04-10 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. [Regnum] Germany's reserves of Patriot air defense systems for possible transfer to Kiev have been exhausted; Berlin and its allies are exploring the possibility of purchasing air defense systems for Kiev from third countries, German Foreign Minister Annalena Bärbock said at a press conference in Berlin on April 9. “Unfortunately, the stocks of our own Patriot systems are now almost exhausted, so at the meeting of NATO foreign ministers I once again made it clear that we need to verify the availability of all Patriot systems in Europe and the world, that we will do everything to get these systems for Ukraine,” she said. According to her, Germany and its allies intend to explore the possibility of establishing a special fund for this. “We, together with our Ukrainian and European partners, will continue to work on this, first of all, to quickly obtain for Ukraine the systems that third countries have,” Berbock noted. As Regnum reported, a day earlier the British magazine The Economist, citing sources, reported that the Russian Armed Forces destroyed several of the Patriot air defense systems supplied by the West. However, it is not specified exactly how many air defense systems were destroyed. The head of the office of Vladimir Zelensky, Andriy Ermak, called the critical moment that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are experiencing due to a shortage of weapons and delays in Western supplies. He also pointed to the inability of Ukrainian troops to shoot down Russian guided glide bombs and demanded more missiles for American Patriot air defense systems. Forbes magazine wrote that Ukraine may soon run out of missile reserves for Western air defense systems NASAMS and Patriot. The publication notes that the Ukrainian side has not received these missiles since the end of 2023. The article also stated that the Ukrainian Armed Forces moved NASAMS and Patriot systems closer to the line of combat contact in order to use these weapons against Russian aviation. The Russian side has repeatedly called on Western countries to refrain from supplying weapons to Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov emphasized that any military cargo intended for Ukrainian troops is a legitimate target of the Russian Armed Forces. Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov, in turn, noted that arms supplies will not change the course of the special military operation in any way, but will only deplete the resources of the countries participating in supporting Ukraine. |
| Posted by:badanov |