Poland plans to station Patriot missile systems at Ukrainian border

Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Błaszczak confirmed Germany’s offer to deploy additional Patriot air defense systems to Poland, adding they would be placed at the border with Ukraine.

Błaszczak said he proposed it to the German side during a phone call on Nov. 21.

After the missile blast in the Polish village of Przewodow, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said her country would provide the Patriot missile systems and help Poland in its air policing with Eurofighter aircraft.

Patriot is an American medium-range anti-aircraft system built to intercept incoming missiles. Polish army has been using them since October and will receive two additional Patriot batteries (16 launchers) by the end of 2022, RFM 24 wrote.

On Nov. 15, during a massive nationwide Russian attack against Ukraine, an explosion killed two people in the Polish village of Przewodow, about six kilometers west of the Ukrainian border.

According to Jakub Kumoch, head of the Polish president’s International Policy Bureau, the Polish-American investigation team found evidence it had been a Ukrainian air defense missile, which was used to shoot down a Russian rocket but missed the target and fell in Przewodow.

Ukraine denied the allegations and requested access to the investigation. Rzeczpospolita reported, citing sources familiar with the matter, that Polish Prosecutor’s Office would not agree to include the Ukrainian side in the investigation.

Meanwhile, about 70% of Polish citizens think that the blast in Przewodow, allegedly caused by a Ukrainian air defense missile amid a mass Russian strike on Nov. 15, will not affect Polish-Ukrainian relations.