European leaders asked K. Mitsotakis and P. Sanchez at the Summit to grant air defense systems to Ukraine.
Greece and Spain they are under intense pressure from their allies to the EU and NATO to provide more air defense systems to Ukraine, as Kiev prepares to ask for more help at a meeting of EU foreign and defense ministers today, Monday.
As the Financial Times reveals, Kiev this month made an urgent appeal to Western allies to seven additional air defense systemssuch as the American-made Patriot or the Soviet-made S-300, as Russia steps up its air and missile attack against the country’s cities and energy infrastructure.
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskywrote on social media platform X on Sunday: “Patriots can only be called air defense systems if they are working and saving lives, rather than sitting idle somewhere in storage bases.”
Pressure on Mitsotakis – Sanchez
Only Germany has announced the deployment of a Patriot system.
Other EU leaders used last week’s Brussels summit to to personally urge the Prime Ministers of Spain and Greece Pedro Sanchez and Kyriakos Mitsotakis to donate some of their systems to Ukraine, according to people briefed on the discussions and cited by the Financial Times.
The two leaders, whose armed forces have more than a dozen Patriot systems as well as other weapons systems such as the S-300, were told that their needs were not as great as Ukraine’s and that they faced no immediate threat. “We all know who has them, we all know where they are and we all know who really needs them” one of them stated.
Officials said it is being practiced less pressure on Poland and Romaniawhich also have Patriots, to consider sending missions to Kiev, given their more vulnerable position on the border with Ukraine.
Ukraine currently has at least three Patriot systems, including one procured from the US and two from Germany, before Berlin’s announcement last week.
Kiev also has long-range surface-to-air missile systems developed by the former Soviet Union, including the S-300 and S-200 systems. An upgraded version of the latter was used to shoot down a Russian Tu-22M3 long-range strategic bomber over Russia’s Stavropol Krai region last week, according to Ukrainian officials.
Air defense interceptor systems are likely to be included in the new US aid package which was approved by the House of Representatives on Saturday.
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Pressures to donate systems will intensify at the meeting of the foreign and defense ministers of all 27 EU member states in Luxembourg on Monday, officials said. Kiev is believed to be particularly interested in Greece’s aging S-300 systems, which Ukrainian forces already have in their arsenal and have relevant experience.
“There are countries that don’t have an immediate need for their air defense systems, to be perfectly honest” said an EU diplomat involved in preparations for the meeting. “Each country is asked to decide what it can allocate.”
The defense ministries of Greece and Spain declined to comment, when contacted by the Financial Times. Sanchez said after meeting with Zelensky last month that Spain “will deliver new systems in 2024 to help Ukraine defend against Russian attack.”
The Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday that he expected new announcements about air defense systems “to be announced shortly”, but did not provide details on the countries or weaponry involved.
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