Israeli Patriot systems have been in service for 30 years: expert on possible air defense supply to Ukraine

He said this on Espreso TV.

"This option with the Israeli Patriot is similar to when people buy a so-called broken-down car, which means that the car can go, but it needs to be brought to a normal technical state. Unfortunately, the situation with the Israeli Patriot is the same. On the one hand, there are 8 Patriot batteries, which means 32 launchers, which would theoretically be enough not only for Kharkiv, but also, perhaps, to cover something else. But the first problem is that negotiations with the Israelis are still ongoing, which does not mean that at least the day after tomorrow these Patriots will be given to us. Negotiations are still ongoing," the military expert told. 

According to him, the second issue is that the Israelis have had these SAMs for 30 years. "If a miracle happens, and we get these systems, we will still have to take them to the US for repairs, because, unfortunately, they are worn out.

"If we make a correction that Israel has Patriots of the wrong modification, only PAC-2, which cannot shoot down ballistic missiles, but is just right to protect Kharkiv from aircraft with bombs, then this is literally what we wanted. However, the problem is that these Israeli Patriots need to be repaired before we can even talk about them. There was a peculiar story with Israel last summer, when they promised to give 200 Merkava tanks to third countries so that they would give them to us, and then all these tanks ended up in the Gaza Strip, they were old tanks by Israeli standards," commented Ivan Kyrychevskyi.

• On June 27, media that the United States and Israel are negotiating with Ukraine to provide it with up to 8 Patriot air defense systems, which are needed to protect it from Russian attacks.