The Netherlands and Ukraine are pressuring Spain to join the "Patriot coalition" and supply Kiev with missile defense systems to protect against Russian attacks. The Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski, transferred his request to Pedro Sánchez during the interview that both held on the 1st at the summit of the European Political Community (EPC), in the vicinity of Chisinau, the Moldovan capital. And the matter has also been the subject of consultations with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in whose country the Spanish Army has deployed a battery of Patriot missiles within the framework of NATO.
The United States announced last December the delivery to Ukraine of its anti-missile system – consisting of launcher, radar and control station – for whose handling a hundred Ukrainian soldiers were trained at the Fort Still base (Oklahoma); and Germany joined the initiative with the delivery of another battery. At the end of April, the first Patriot launchers arrived in Ukraine and one of them was already damaged in a Russian attack on Kiev on May 16, according to the Pentagon.
However, who has become the standard-bearer of the initiative to provide Ukraine with a shield that protects its main cities and strategic centers from attacks with missiles and drones is the Dutch prime minister, who announced that his country would deliver the Patriot system to Ukraine after meeting with US President Joe Biden at the White House. on January 17. In Moldova, Rutte pledged to Zelenskiy to bolster his air defense with Patriot systems and F-16 fighters.
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Contrary to what happens with the "F-16 coalition" – the group of countries that plans to deliver combat aircraft to Zelenski – which Spain cannot join because it does not have this US fighter model in its inventory, the Spanish Army does have two batteries of Patriot missiles purchased second-hand from Germany in 2004 and 2014.
Spain is not the only country that Kiev has tried to supply Patriot. It has also done so with Sweden, Poland or Romania; and even with countries outside Europe that have such a missile, such as the United Arab Emirates (USA). "For Ukraine, bolstering air defenses is crucial and the Patriot is one of the best options. Kiev needs more launchers and also more missiles to replenish the ones it spends," said an allied source.
Launch of a Patriot missile during Israeli maneuvers with the United States in 2005.
Spain's problem is that one of its two batteries – the only one that meets all the operational requirements demanded by NATO – has been deployed at the Turkish base of Incirlik since 2015, while the other is in Marines (Valencia) and is considered essential for national defense. Spain would be willing to cede to Kiev the battery deployed in Turkey, but President Erdogan has made clear his interest in the Patriots remaining in his country even beyond December 31 of this year, when the current commitment ends. For some time now, the presence of the Patriots in Turkey no longer responds to a military need, since the risk of a missile attack from Syria has vanished after the end of the civil war in the neighboring country, but it has a high political content, since it makes visible the solidarity of NATO with Turkey, a wayward partner that is hindering Sweden's entry into the Atlantic Alliance. Spain is the only country that keeps this allied mission alive.
In addition, the two Patriot batteries that Spain has are at the end of their useful life and will have to be discharged if they are not modernized. Defense has a program, endowed with 1,400 million euros, to modernize the batteries from version 2 + to 3 + and provide them with a true anti-missile capability and not only anti-aircraft, but it is pending authorization by the United States. The purchase of a new battery, to replace the one eventually delivered to Kiev, would be delayed even further, according to military sources.
What Spain has supplied to Ukraine are 10 Leopard battle tanks, 40 TOA (Tracked Armoured Transport) M-113 armored vehicles, Aspide and Hawk anti-aircraft missiles and Harpoon anti-ship, among other material. The latest delivery consisted of half a dozen Marine Corps Supercat boats, with the capacity to transport a platoon of riflemen, especially suitable for command operations, due to their high speed (40 knots, 74 kilometers per hour) and their ability to navigate in mined waters, due to their shallow draft and the absence of a metal hull. This was one of the requests that Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov made to his counterpart, Margarita Robles, during her visit to Madrid in April.
Next week, in the midst of talks on what framework NATO will offer Ukraine at its next summit, on July 11 and 12 in Vilnius (Lithuania) and what security guarantees it can give, the defense ministers of the allied countries will also discuss the measures to support Kiev. The pace and support has been maintained, but when the Ukrainian counteroffensive is showing the first signs of beginning – although it may be slowed by the blowing up of the Nova Kakhovka dam – the demands for state-of-the-art weapons with which to protect themselves from attacks and break through the fortifications that Russia has erected in the occupied areas in the east of the country are growing.
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