Which countries have Patriot air defense systems Ukraine needs: expert tells

He said this on Espreso TV.

"The Ukrainian government has a rather logical position: countries have Patriots. For example, Germany may have at least 10 Patriot PAC-3s, and there may be a certain number in warehouses in a rather poor condition because they were decommissioned in the 2000s, or perhaps sold off, so their fate is unknown.

If we understand that the entire Western world has a hundred Patriots, then the fourth part, when we are talking about 25 of these systems for Ukraine, of course, cannot be an easy task. So far, the United States has not allocated any aid to Ukraine, so we exclude from consideration the 60 Patriot batteries that are in the American arsenal. European countries have 35 such batteries.

Germany, which is the leader of the coalition in the search for air defense systems, immediately said that it would not be easy to find Patriots for Ukraine. It is possible that complicated ways will be considered with the search for different combinations, that is, for example, someone will give one launcher, and someone will give a communication vehicle, someone will give a radar station," the military expert noted.

According to him, Germany has also said that it will look for options outside of Europe, namely Asia and the Middle East.

"In Asia, I mean Japan, which has recently lifted self-imposed restrictions on arms exports, so it can sell missiles made by Mitsubishi to the United States. But as long as the United States doesn't give us any help, we can forget about it. Japan has 25 Patriot batteries. Taiwan is definitely not going to transfer SAMs, although it has 7 Patriots. South Korea is not transferring weapons to Ukraine because the DPRK is next door with its constant tests.

As for the Middle East, it is a very difficult region in terms of arms trade and diplomacy in general, but there are Patriots there, including up to 25 in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia can be a potential donor, because it is focused on American and European weapons. In my opinion, there is a chance," commented the Defense Express editor-in-chief.

Katkov added that the situation depends on the United States, which is delaying the adoption of the budget for Ukraine, and Europe itself may put together one or two Patriot batteries in the short term.

• On April 4, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in Brussels that Germany had initiated a search for affordable Patriot air defense systems for Kyiv.
• On April 9, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that the partners should try to find additional air defense systems in their own and third countries and send them to Ukraine as soon as possible.