Greece and Spain are under intense pressure from their European Union and NATO allies to provide air defense systems to Ukraine, as Kiev prepares to demand more help at a meeting of EU foreign and defense ministers on Monday, the website reports. the Financial Times.
Kiev recently made an urgent appeal to Western allies for an additional seven air defense systems, such as US-made Patriot or Soviet-made S-300 systems, as Russia steps up an air and missile campaign against the country’s cities and energy infrastructure.
Only Germany has so far announced the deployment of a Patriot system.
Other EU leaders used last week’s summit in Brussels to personally urge the leaders of Spain and Greece, Pedro Sanchez and Kyriakos Mitsotakis, to donate some of their air defense systems to Ukraine, according to people with knowledge of the discussions who cited the FT.
The two leaders, notes the British newspaper, whose armed forces have more than 12 Patriot systems, as well as S-300 systems, are under pressure “arguing that the need for them is not as great as Ukraine’s and that they do not face no imminent threat”.
“We all know who has them, we all know where they are and we all know who really needs them,” one of the FT’s sources said.
Officials said less pressure was being applied to Poland and Romania, which also have Patriots, given their more vulnerable location near the border with Ukraine.
Ukraine currently has at least three Patriot systems, including one procured from the US and two from Germany.
Pressure to donate systems will intensify at a meeting of foreign and defense ministers from all 27 EU member states in Luxembourg on Monday, officials said. Kiev is understood to be particularly interested in Greece’s S-300 systems, which Ukrainian forces already have in their arsenal and have experience with.
“There are countries that don’t have an immediate need for their air defense systems, to be perfectly honest,” noted an EU diplomat involved in preparations for the meeting. “Each country is called upon to decide what it can consider to be surplus.”
The defense ministries of Greece and Spain declined to comment on the issue when contacted by the Financial Times.
