Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said yesterday that the Kremlin is awaiting official statements to approve Kyiv’s request to supply the Ukrainian army with a Patriot missile battery, adding: “These are all media reports about possible deliveries … media reports are not reliable, so we will wait some official information.” However, he pointed out that the American Patriot would be a legitimate target for Russian strikes if it was brought to Kyiv.
And U.S. media reported on Tuesday that the United States, after much hesitation, is ready to grant Kyiv’s request for a battery of Patriot missiles to the Ukrainian army, with the number of missiles Washington will send to Kyiv still unclear, as well as the exact location and training Ukrainian military to use them.
CNN reported Tuesday, citing unnamed U.S. officials, that the final approval associated with providing the United States with a Patriot missile battery could be announced starting this week after U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin approves it and sends it to the White House for approval. house. last green light.
Patriot missiles, which have proven their worth on a large scale in Iraq and the Persian Gulf countries in recent years, are among the quality weapons that can greatly reduce the effectiveness of Russian strikes against Ukraine.
However, several points remain unclear about how Washington will deliver these missiles to Kyiv, for example, the number of missiles that Washington will send to Kyiv, where they will be deployed in Ukraine, and where the Ukrainian army will be trained remains unknown. use them.
In recent weeks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged Western capitals to provide his country with modern air defense systems to counter Russian strikes intensified since last October by bombing Ukraine’s power grid.
For his part, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said: “Russian President Vladimir Putin has not achieved all of his goals in the war in Ukraine, and Schultz said in a government statement he made yesterday in Parliament: “None of Putin’s plans have succeeded … He is in fundamentally miscalculated.
He added: “Putin believed that his troops would invade Ukraine within days,” adding, “The Russian president believed that Europe and the democratic West were divided to the point of preventing them from helping Ukraine effectively.
Scholz added: Putin has been deceived about the courage of Ukrainians, Europe, the nature of our democracies, our will to resist superpower obsession and imperialism… This is a true story of this 2022, Ukraine is resisting Russian aggression, but the West has also risen to the challenge.
