How many Patriots will cover the skies over Ukraine: Zelensky announced the figure
15 July 2024 16:24
Ukraine needs 25 Patriot air defence systems to protect its skies from Russian missiles and drones. This figure was announced by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a press conference on 15 July, according to "Komersant Ukrainian".
“From the point of view of our air defence, in order to completely cover Ukraine, according to our military, we need 25 Patriots,” the Ukrainian head of state said.
By the way, he did not specify the number of air defence systems that the Ukrainian military already has.
The President added that the additional 5 Patriot systems announced at the NATO summit are a significant contribution to air defence.
“As a result of the NATO summit, we have positive decisions on the deployment of our air defence system. Additionally, we will receive 5 Patriot systems from our partners, as well as dozens of Hawk, Nassau, Samp-T systems and missiles,” Zelenskyy said.
He clarified that Europe gave us everything they could in terms of air defence.
Will Patriot be able to close the skies over Ukraine: foreign experts’ opinion
Meanwhile, the German newspaper Bild, citing military experts, published an article claiming that the air defence systems promised at the NATO summit will not be able to cover Ukraine’s major border cities. Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv and Chernihiv will remain under attack.
Currently, two Patriot air defence systems are protecting the skies over Kyiv, and one each over Lviv and Odesa, according to the publication, based on open data.
The West has also recently promised Ukraine three new Patriots and the SAMP/T system. According to experts, they may be sent to defend Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, Vinnytsia, and the future F-16 base in western Ukraine, which will probably be located in Khmelnytsky region.
However, they will not be used too close to the front line or the Russian border.
“Russian drone reconnaissance is well developed there, and there is a high probability of detection and destruction of Western air defence systems by Russian weapons. This problem can only be solved by F-16s or strikes deep into the territory of the Russian Federation, which are not yet available,” the newspaper wrote.
