Spain pledges to deliver Patriot missiles to Ukraine
During a recent visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Spain, Madrid pledged to provide Ukraine with five missiles for Patriot air defence systems amid a global shortage caused by the war in the Middle East.
Source: European Pravda, citing sources in the Spanish government, as reported by El Pais
Details: The Spanish government believes that the war in Iran, launched by the United States and Israel without informing or consulting European allies, is not Europe's war. However, it is convinced that Europe is staking its future on the war in Ukraine, where Russia's invasion has threatened the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity, violating international law.
Spanish government sources have confirmed what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not mention during the visit – Spain's pledge to provide five Patriot missiles.
The missiles in question are Patriot PAC-2, currently in service with the Spanish Army's anti-aircraft artillery regiment based in Marines (Valencia). Although they are not the most modern – the Ministry of Defence has a programme to upgrade them to the PAC-3 version – their cost ranges from US$3 million to US$4 million per piece, totalling around €15 million.
However, the real issue at present is not money, but the inability of the main manufacturer, the American company Raytheon, to meet the sharply increased demand. In fact, the delivery of four Patriot missile batteries in the 3+ configuration, which Spain ordered for nearly €1.5 billion, has been repeatedly delayed and is now expected in 2031. This makes them a highly scarce asset, including within Spain's own military arsenals. Therefore, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's gesture to Volodymyr Zelenskyy takes on even greater significance.
This is not the first time Spain has supplied Patriot missiles to Kyiv. In 2024, it already delivered two batches with an unspecified number of missiles. At the time, the decision followed lengthy disagreements with NATO, which had been pressing countries possessing these missiles to provide them to Kyiv. Now, it is the Spanish government itself that has taken the initiative.
During Zelenskyy's most recent visit to Spain, Sánchez reaffirmed his commitment to supply Ukraine with €1 billion worth of weapons this year under the agreement signed in May 2024, bringing Spain's total military assistance since the start of the full-scale war in February 2022 to €4 billion. Some of the new projects will be financed through the EU's SAFE programme.
Sánchez also said that the crisis in the Middle East would not divert his country's attention from supporting Ukraine.
For his part, Zelenskyy announced the signing of a series of cooperation agreements between Ukrainian and Spanish defence industry companies.
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