Pentagon chief asks other countries to supply Ukraine with Patriot systems

Lloyd Austin, US Secretary of Defense, has asked countries which have Patriot systems to hand them over to Ukraine to strengthen its air defence.

Source: Austin at the hearings in the Committee for Armed Forces of the US House of Representatives on 30 April, as reported by European Pravda

Details: The Pentagon chief reminded the audience about last week's meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, which focused on the issue of the supply of air defence means.

Quote: "There are countries that have Patriots, and so what we are doing is continuing to engage those countries. I have talked to the leaders of several countries myself in the last two weeks, encouraging them to give up more capability or provide more capability."

Austin did not specify who exactly he discussed the aid for Ukraine with, but there is information that such European countries as Spain, Greece, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden have batteries of Patriot systems deployed on their territories.

Background:

• Out of the countries mentioned above, only Germany announced urgent supply of one such system.
• The media reported earlier that Greece and Spain are under intense pressure from their EU and NATO allies concerning supplying Ukraine with supplementary air defence systems.
• Dmytro Kuleba, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, stated earlier that Ukraine identified 100 air defence systems in allied states and requested to provide it with at least seven of them for the protection of Ukrainian cities.

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