Patriot systems may appear in Ukraine no earlier than February - retired Colonel Collins

The former director of the Modern War Institute at West Point believes Ukrainian defenders need several weeks to months to master the Patriot systems.

“It's a fairly advanced system, one of the world`s best. It will probably take several weeks to actually get them up to speed to, and then transport the system over there, so weeks to months before we will be able to employ it for Ukrainians within the country,” Liam Collins said, adding that “early February – the earliest” when these weapons can appear in Ukraine. 

However, the retired colonel claims that despite all the talk, Russia will not be able to escalate if the systems are handed over to Ukraine.

“Russia has shown they cannot escalate the conflict, they have all their forces in, they have been fighting ineffectively till these days, there is no way for them to escalate this beyond what they're doing other things than just try shooting missiles at civilians. It doesn't escalate the tactical fight. Russia is incapable of employing more forces effectively within Ukraine. It's just propaganda by Russia,” he noted. 

When asked if the US could provide Ukraine with many more anti-ballistic systems to close the skies over the country, he said:

“It's what they did from the beginning of the conflict: they shoot 30% of Russian missiles, and it's up to 78% now. And you really want to get higher up to 90%. They'll show they can do it with the Patriot missile system. I think they will be able to get 90% and be able to shoot down many of those Russian missiles, it's a high possibility depending on how many missiles they will be able to employ.”