Scholz hopes NATO countries can deliver 6 more Patriots to Ukraine
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There are six additional Patriot systems in NATO countries that could be delivered to Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on April 18 following a Special European Council summit in Brussels.
Ukraine is facing a shortage of air defense systems amid an uptick in Russian attacks on population centers and energy infrastructure. U.S.-made Patriot systems are highly effective at intercepting Russia's ballistic and cruise missiles.
Germany announced on April 13 that it would provide Kyiv with an additional Patriot system, the third Patriot system Berlin has provided.
"Germany has taken substantial measures to equip Ukraine" and now calls "on others to take similar decisions," Scholz said.
Scholz said he used the Special European Council summit to "repeat this call and deepen it once more."
"We have heard about seven additional systems, one of these is ours, and we hope to find six more in the NATO context."
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told the Washington Post in an interview published on April 10 that Ukraine aims to obtain an additional seven Patriot air defense systems, and has offered that Kyiv can loan the systems from other countries.
During the summit, EU leaders discussed "the question of how we find the funds" needed to support Ukraine militarily, Scholz said, and agreed that windfall profits from frozen Russian assets would be used to "procure defense means for Ukraine."
Western countries and other partners immobilized around $300 billion of the Russian Central Bank's assets at the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in February that the EU should discuss the possibility of using the profits from frozen Russian assets to purchase military equipment for Ukraine.
