The Pentagon has no new announcements on a possible supply of an additional Patriot missile system to Ukraine, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on June 13 during a Ramstein-format meeting, adding that Washington continues to work on boosting Ukraine's air defenses.
The statement came shortly after the New York Times reported that the U.S. is planning to deliver another Patriot battery to Ukraine. The outlet claimed that this should concern a system placed in Poland, which Warsaw denied.
"I don't have any announcements on Patriot batteries today, but what I can tell you is I continue to work (on) this, I'm in constant contact with my Ukrainian counterpart (Rustem Umerov), and we're gonna do everything we can to make sure that they have the capability they need," Austin said at a press briefing following a Ramstein group meeting in Brussels.
"Air defense has been on top of my agenda for a long time... (As) you know, we've provided a Patriot to them already," Austin noted, adding that Washington has also been encouraging other partners to provide missiles and other systems like NASAMS and SAMP/T.
Ukraine operates at least two Patriot systems supplied by Germany and one sent by the U.S. The Netherlands previously supplied two launchers and founded an initiative to jointly supply a full new system in cooperation with other partners.
Berlin also pledged its third Patriot, which is bound to arrive in Ukraine within the coming months, but German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius denied rumors about providing a fourth system.
"We already provided three (Patriot) systems, which means a quarter of our capacities. So, there is no space to provide even more than those three systems," Pistorius said in Brussels on June 13.
Another system confirmed to soon arrive in Ukraine is a SAMP/T air defense battery, pledged by Italy in addition to the one supplied by Paris and Rome in 2023.
Kyiv has been repeatedly appealing to its partners to provide additional air defenses as Russian forces continue to hammer the country's energy infrastructure and population centers with drones and missiles.
Olena Goncharova
(Updated: )
