EU and NATO urge allies to send anti-missile systems to create a shield over Ukraine

The European Union and NATO have urged Ukraine's allied countries to "urgently" send it the anti-aircraft systems they have available to create an anti-missile shield against Russian attacks. If it does not receive this help, it risks suffering defeat, the member countries of the G-7 said this Thursday. The situation in the invaded country, which faces a constant rain of rockets and drones from the Kremlin against its civil and energy infrastructure, is dire. “Ukraine immediately needs surface-to-air missile batteries that are available,” claimed the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security, Josep Borrell, in a letter sent to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defense of the Union, to the that EL PAÍS has had access to. Meanwhile, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has reiterated that allies must prioritize the defense of Ukraine before achieving the objectives of the military organization.

Ukraine says it needs at least seven anti-missile batteries and has intensified its requests to Spain to give it the Patriot system it has stationed in Turkey, on the border with Syria, with a detachment of 150 soldiers as part of an Atlantic Alliance mission. . Sources from the Spanish Ministry of Defense rule out this possibility for the moment, and recall that it was already considered last year, when they even consulted with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reports

Miguel González

. kyiv has also demanded that Greece and the Netherlands, which have three Patriot batteries, give them some.

“These systems, available in the world, should not languish in arsenals when they could save countless lives from Russian terror,” the Ukrainian Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Dmitro Kuleba, and Defense, Rustem Umerov, have urged in a letter sent to their counterparts in the EU that has been able to consult this newspaper. “As the situation on the battlefield intensifies, all of Ukraine's partners must provide adequate support, ensuring rapid transfer of available Patriot batteries,” Ukrainian officials add.

Spain has three batteries of this type: the one in Turkey (and meets NATO technical requirements), another one in Valencia, at the Marine base and which is essential for national security, and a last one that only It is enabled for training – it does not meet the requirements of the Atlantic Alliance – and is being used for training Ukrainian personnel, according to military sources. Greece and the Netherlands also have this Patriot anti-aircraft system and other allies have similar elements.

Furthermore, Spain emphasizes that it maintains its firm commitment to support Ukraine and reveals that a new and important package of weapons and ammunition is being prepared. It must be ready by June 30 and will include, among other equipment, the first delivery of the 19 Leopard A2 battle tanks that the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has committed to Zelensky in addition to the 10 already supplied last year, and which are undergoing a profound and expensive rehabilitation at the Santa Bárbara de Alcalá de Guadaíra plant (Seville).

Speed ​​up deliveries

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Now that the situation in Ukraine is especially critical, the EU and NATO are asking to accelerate deliveries to kyiv. “Ukraine's partners around the world would need to donate only a small part of their own existing equipment to make a real difference,” claims Borrell in his letter, in which he reminds the Twenty-Seven that the EU intergovernmental fund can reimburse those transferred systems (or part of them). Brussels also wants missile production to increase, both to send to kyiv and for reserves. The head of European diplomacy will discuss the issue in an urgent meeting on Monday with the EU foreign and defense ministers. NATO will address it this Friday.

The foreign ministers of the G-7 - the United States, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, France and Germany, along with the EU as a

de facto

member - have also urged this Thursday to accelerate deliveries. “We have Patriots and other anti-missile systems, we have to take them out of the barracks and send them where a war is being fought,” said Borrell on the Italian island of Capri, where he met with his G-7 counterparts.

Germany has specifically joined the calls made by Borrell, NATO and the G-7. Chancellor Olaf Scholz has launched a diplomatic offensive in several countries, also outside the EU and the Alliance, to send anti-aircraft systems to Ukraine. Berlin announced this week the shipment of another Patriot battery (it had already provided two). In addition, together with other NATO allies, they are studying formulas to purchase anti-missile batteries—not necessarily Patriot—available outside the Alliance.

Ukraine would like to build a shield similar to the Israeli Iron Dome. But the priority is to place more anti-aircraft batteries to stop missiles and rockets in the east of the country and provide coverage to other civil and energy infrastructure. In March, Russia launched an average of three Russian ballistic missiles into Ukraine a day, according to EU data. In the week of March 18 to 24, Russia launched more than 190 missiles, 140 Iranian-made Shahed drones and more than 500 guided aerial bombs, Umerov and Kuleba say in their letter to their European counterparts.

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