Ukraine’s FM urges U.S. to speed up delivery of air defense systems
Kuleba hinted that Ukraine needs the Patriot air defense system (Photo:Dmytro Kuleba/Facebook)
Ukraine calls on the United States to speed up the delivery of advanced air defense systems, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted on Nov. 17.
“I thanked the U.S. for its crucial defense assistance and emphasized that deliveries of air defense systems to Ukraine need to be sped up,” Kuleba said after a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, amid a massive Russian missile attack on Ukraine early on Nov. 17.
“NASAMS (systems) have proved their efficiency already. I’m also convinced that the time for ‘Patriots’ (anti-missile defense systems) has come.”
Kuleba also commented on a recent incident with a missile that fell on the territory of Poland.
“We share the view that Russia bears full responsibility for its missile terror and its consequences on the territory of Ukraine, Poland, and Moldova,” the foreign minister tweeted.
Ukraine has repeatedly asked foreign partners to help protect the sky from Russian missile attacks.
The Washington Post reported in May that the United States might trans-fer the Patriot anti-missile defense systems to Ukraine. In September, re-ports emerged that the two countries were negotiating over Patriot deliveries – however, this information remains unconfirmed.
In early October, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked G7 leaders to pro-vide Ukraine with medium- and long-range air defense and anti-missile defence systems.
Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov tweeted on Nov. 7 that NASAMS and Aspide air defence systems had arrived in Ukraine.
Ukraine has also recently received a German IRIS-T anti-aircraft system.
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