As of: March 28, 2024, 12:19 p.m
By: Patrick Mayer
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The Russians have apparently found an antidote to the Patriot air defense. Ukraine is demanding more systems from NATO. But: where should they come from?
Kharkiv - On Wednesday evening (March 27th),
ZDF
presenter Marietta Slomka stated soberly in the "heute journal" that Kremlin autocrat Vladimir Putin's aim in the Ukraine war is now apparently to bomb Kharkiv ready for attack. “The second largest city in Ukraine,” as Slomka emphatically emphasized.
Ukraine war: Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin has Kharkiv bombed
As if the warmonger from the Kremlin in Russia had heard these words, he had the city with its 1.5 million inhabitants, around 40 universities and its many cultural institutions treacherously bombed with aerial bombs on the same day. To put it into perspective: free-falling bombs are sometimes very inaccurate. They hit something. No specific goal. And Ukrainian air defenses increasingly seem unable to prevent this.
Kremlin autocrat Vladimir Putin was shown the training for pilots of Russian attack helicopters in Torzhok on March 27th. © IMAGO / SNA
Ukraine War: Heavy Russian air strikes on Kharkiv and Kiev
Several five-story residential buildings in Kharkiv were damaged, as was an institute for emergency surgery, President Volodymyr Zelenskyj said on Facebook. According to local police, it was the first air raid involving bombs dropped by warplanes since the first year of the war in 2022.
While the Ukrainians are losing more and more tanks, such as the “Marder”, against the Russian army, the Ukrainian foreign minister has called for drastically more air defense systems for his battered country. “This is a reminder that Ukraine urgently needs more air defenses, especially Patriot systems. Give us the damn Patriots!” Dmytro Kuleba told the US magazine
Politico
after several air strikes on the capital Kiev : “If we had enough air defense systems, namely Patriots, we could not only protect the lives of our people, but also our economy Protect destruction.”
Ukraine's Patriot air defense: Was Kiev taking too much risk against Russia?
The problem: Putin's invasion troops are obviously on the hunt for Western anti-aircraft systems at the behest of Moscow. Recently, the Russians apparently managed to destroy a Patriot system near Pokrovsk in Donbass with an Iskander-M missile. To put things into perspective: Germany delivered two Patriots, the USA provided one system. The Netherlands also sent two Patriot launchers. That was it. Apparently the Ukrainians recently took too great a risk by shooting down 15 of Putin's Russian fighter jets between February 17th and March 3rd.
“Ukraine is specifically trying to set anti-aircraft ambushes: it removes individual anti-aircraft systems, for example Nasams, but also Patriot, from the urban centers and brings them covertly to the front,” Austrian military expert Markus Reisner explained to ntv.de
:
“The However, Russians have been conducting ambush operations in search of these anti-aircraft systems, and in the last ten days they appear to have succeeded in destroying some. This was documented again in a video at the weekend.”
Air defense for Germany: Bundeswehr soldiers from anti-aircraft missile group 24 in front of Patriot systems. (Archive photo) © IMAGO / BildFunkMV
Air defense for Ukraine: Where should NATO get more Patriots from?
While the Ukrainians are successfully attacking occupied Crimea and their kamikaze drone “Lyutyi” is wreaking havoc on Russia’s oil industry, one question remains: Where can we get more Patriots from? The Republicans in the USA have been blocking a military package from the Biden administration worth a rumored $61 billion since the end of 2023. According to American media reports, more missiles would be included for the remaining Patriot systems.
So initially nothing comes from the United States. If you look at Ukraine's immediate neighbors, there isn't much to be gained. Neither Hungary, Slovakia nor Poland have their own Patriot air defense systems. Air defense in Poland is largely carried out by the Americans with their Patriots at the Rzeszow military airport in the southeast of the country, from where weapons deliveries to the Ukrainian army are handled. But: The Patriots there are explicitly supposed to protect NATO airspace. And, for example, not the major Ukrainian city of Lviv, which is only 130 kilometers to the east.
NATO's Patriot air defense systems: Hardly any of Ukraine's neighbors have one
After all, Romania has eight Patriots. However, the country on the Black Sea is an essential part of NATO's eastern flank. Which makes delivery less likely. Germany remains. But: Two problems come into play. The Bundeswehr's anti-aircraft missile group originally had twelve complete Patriot air defense systems - with M903 launchers, AN/MSQ-104 fire control stations, multifunctional radars and antenna mast systems.
In April 2023, for example, the Bundeswehr stationed three Patriots in Poland and two complete systems in Slovakia to deter Moscow. According to the
Berliner Morgenpost,
five systems in the defense industry were modernized at the same time. Because one of the two remaining Patriots systems had already been delivered to Kiev, exactly one remained to defend the Federal Republic. Very little for a country with more than 84 million inhabitants.
Patriots must now be stationed here, in Ukraine, to protect real lives, not remain in places where the missile threat is zero.
Dmytro Kuleba, Foreign Minister of Ukraine
As Der
Spiegel
reported in October, the Federal Ministry of Defense was negotiating with the US manufacturer about the purchase of several additional systems. But: Delivery could begin in 2025 at the earliest and will not be completed until 2027, it was said. No purchase has been announced since then. The Ukrainian Foreign Minister nevertheless demanded: “Patriots must now be stationed here, in Ukraine, to protect real human lives and not stay in places where the missile threat is zero.”
(pm)