Liam Conner
The US is moving Ukraine to the top of the list to receive air defense interceptors to defend your cities against Russian missile attack. The policy decision applies to interceptors that Patriot and other air defense systems use it to shoot down incoming missiles and drones.
“We will reprioritize deliveries of these exports so that missiles coming off the production line are now supplied to Ukraine,” White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby told reporters on Thursday. “This will ensure that we will be able to provide Ukraine with the missiles it needs to maintain its arsenals at a key moment in the war.”
The first missile shipments to Ukraine will take place in the coming weeks, according to Kirby, and Ukraine will see initial deliveries before the end of the summer. He called the reprioritization a “difficult but necessary decision.”
Countries that placed orders for the same missiles will still receive them, but with a delay. Kirby said the focus on Ukraine’s inventory will last approximately the next 16 months, and after that, other countries will begin receiving the missiles they have ordered.
Jens Buttner/Pool via REUTERS
In Italy at the G7 summit earlier this month, President Biden, in a press conference with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, said: “Everything we have will go to Ukraine until its needs are met. And then we will fulfill the commitments that we assume for other countries.”
Taiwan is exempt due to its urgent need to also acquire similar capabilities in the face of threats from China.
The US gave a battery of Patriot missiles to Ukraine last year after training a small group of Ukrainians at Fort Sill in Oklahoma. about how to operate it. The US has also compromised several advanced domestic surface-to-air missile systems and other older air defense systems.
The Patriot systems can intercept ballistic and cruise missiles and have a greater range, up to 100 miles, than the nation’s advanced surface-to-air missile system, which has a range of 80 miles and can shoot down cruise missiles and drones.
Zelenskyy publicly called on the US and allies to supply seven more Patriot systems. In Italy last week, he said, “we urgently need seven Patriot systems – yes, to save our cities.”
Russia, in its war against Ukraine, targets civilian infrastructure with the apparent aim of depriving Ukrainian citizens of water, heat and electricity, especially during winter.
The US is not alone in providing air defense capabilities to Ukraine. Members of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a coalition of about 50 countries that meets monthly to discuss how to support Ukraine, have also pledged to help with air defense. After the most recent meeting last week, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the Netherlands is leading an effort to assemble different parts that make up a Patriot system and asking other countries for input as well.
The political decision to accelerate missile shipments to Ukraine comes in the same week that President Putin of Russia paid a visit to North Korea to sign a defense pact as he seeks more support for the Russian side in the war.
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