The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj repeatedly calls on Western heads of state to supply additional air defense systems. Ukraine says it has defended around 2,000 cruise missiles and rockets since the war began in February 2022.
Vladimir Putin's troops are currently launching daily air strikes on Ukraine. The Ukrainian Foreign Minister's proposal: protect Ukraine and NATO airspace from Poland at the same time. The German Bundeswehr alone still has ten units of the Patriot system. However, many of them are reserved for NATO missions, according to the German newspaper Tagesspiegel. The missile strikes on Polish territory in November 2022 were probably not a Russian attack on a NATO state, but rather misdirected Ukrainian missiles. As early as 2023, Germany stationed air defense systems in Poland to protect the NATO state. At the end of 2023, the three Patriot anti-aircraft missiles returned to Germany. The trigger for the delivery of the air defense systems was rocket strikes on Poland in November 2022, in which two men died.