US-made two Patriot missile defense systems have arrived in ukraine Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov from the US, Germany and the Netherlands announced on Wednesday. “Today our beautiful Ukrainian sky is safer,” he tweeted. Ukrainian air defense teams are trained to use advanced surface-to-air systems, which take 90 people to operate and maintain. “Our partners have kept their word,” said Reznikov, who has been pressing the US for the Patriot missiles since August 2021, five months before Russia could launch a full-scale invasion.
The Patriot missiles will help Ukraine defend itself against Russian attack aircraft, cruise missiles and short-range ballistic missiles. The Associated Press reportsHowever “experts caution that the system’s effectiveness is limited and it may not significantly change the shape of the battle.”
the pentagon too Announces a new military aid package of $325 million To Ukraine on Wednesday, it authorized the handover of HIMARS ammunition, artillery rounds, and anti-armor capabilities, among other weapons. The upcoming shipment, the presidential 36th drawdown from US inventories to Ukraine since August 2021, was announced ahead of a weekend meeting in Germany of dozens of donor countries to the US-led Ukraine Defense Contact Group.
This next tranche of donations to Ukraine will focus on replenishing Kiev’s ammunition and anti-armor capabilities ahead of a widely anticipated spring counteroffensive, an unnamed Pentagon official said. Said political man, Classified US military assessments leaked online detailing the Pentagon’s concerns about Ukrainian ammunition and air defense missile supply shortfalls and its ability to regain stolen territory. A second Pentagon official called the leak “a kind of spinning negative information”.
Yes, Ukraine “may run out of ammunition – if we do nothing,” said the official political man, “But we’re going to provide them with absolutely all the ammunition, artillery, spare parts, maintenance, upkeep, platforms that they need.”
