He said this on Espreso TV.
"The fact is that air defense systems similar to Patriot are primarily in the arsenals of NATO member states located in Europe. In addition, quite a few of these systems are in storage in the United States. The point is that now, amid the increased terror on the part of the Russian Federation in the form of severe bombing of the territory of Ukraine using guided aircraft bombs and tactical missiles, it is quite possible to find up to a dozen Patriot units. This will increase the capabilities of our air defense until we get some other capabilities that may be associated with the production of our own air defense system or with the arrival of Western aircraft," the military expert noted.
According to him, while Ukrainian cities are suffering from missile attacks, these air defense systems are idle in NATO countries.
"There are air defense systems that could be redistributed, because we have already seen similar examples when Ukraine received some systems on the eve of this season of Russian terror as a so-called lease. We don't know the details, but at least there were reports of several such air defense systems being transferred to Ukraine. So, in this case, we should say that our partners have reserves for the transfer of such systems to Ukraine. There is a strict need for this, and our partners must make such unpopular decisions, but they are necessary for the security of Europe itself," emphasized Valerii Riabykh.