Russian airstrikes against Ukrainian civilian infrastructure – such as power plants – continue unabated. Thus, The Ukrainian government asks its Western allies for more air defense batteries. He did so at the NATO foreign ministers’ meeting two weeks ago, at the EU summit in Brussels, at the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Capri (Italy) last week and now, again, at the meeting of EU foreign and defense ministers in Luxembourg.
The message is always the same: Ukraine urgently needs defense systems of the Patriot or Iris-T type to counter Russian aggression. In addition, there is still a lack of ammunition for front-line artillery. The response of the Western allies has always been the same: we are trying to find as quickly as possible weapons and ammunition systems that can be dispensed with without leaving us totally defenseless.
The frustration over this not only affects the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba. The EU Foreign Affairs representative, Josep Borrell, is also losing patience with European hesitations. “I don’t have any Patriot defense systems in Brussels, they have to come from the member states,” he said angrily after the meeting, where again no concrete decisions were made.
Missiles are needed
The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, estimated that another 24 defense systems are needed to protect its entire territory.. Kuleba, meanwhile, said he would be content with just six, if they were immediately available. There are currently three US and three German Patriot systems in operations in Ukraine. Berlin promised one more.
Germany is the only country in Europe that can currently do without some Patriots. The Netherlands, Spain, Greece, Romania, Sweden and Poland also have the modern defense system, but in such small quantities that they do not even dare to reveal the figures.
“Stock is out of stock”
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock stated that they have been trying to find additional equipment for months, but their own stocks “ran out.” Germany has a total of twelve Patriot systems, four of which have been transferred to Ukraine. The remaining eight are not enough for national air defense. By the way, twelve is not enough either, because these systems were not designed to protect the civilian population, but rather as mobile units to cover cities or large troop units.
In addition to the Patriot, Ukraine also has four Iris-T type defense systems made in Germany. And more will come. From Norway, Italy, France and the United States, Ukraine has received a small number of NASAM systems, with a shorter range. The $61 billion in military aid promised by the United States includes at least ammunition for these NASAMs and also for the Patriots. It must be considered that each shot with a Patriot costs around 4 million dollars.
Next opportunity: Ramstein Conference
There may be concrete aid commitments from European allies at the regular meeting of the so-called Ramstein Group, which will be held later this week. All the States that have supplied weapons and trained soldiers to Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian aggression, more than two years ago, gather there. The group is not a NATO institution and is named after the location where the first conference was held: the US Air Force Base Ramstein in Germany.
Perhaps there they take into account the data from the Royal United Services Institute of the United Kingdom, where they estimate that The Ukrainian army can only fire 2,000 grenades and large-caliber projectiles a day. Russia, on the other hand, has up to 10,000 shells available each day.
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