1st Operational Deployment: Ukraine ‘Flaunts’ Its Patriot Defense System As Kyiv Looks To Thwart Russian Missile Attacks

By
EurAsian Times Desk
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Ukraine is ‘flaunting’ its much-touted Patriot air defense system that Kyiv was eagerly awaiting to thwart Russian missile strikes. Earlier, on April 18, the Federal Ministry of Defense announced on its website that Germany had transferred a Patriot system to Kyiv. 

Ukraine’s defense minister Oleksii Reznikov tweeted: “Patriots” for patriots Do you know how to visualize a dream? We must tell about it to the world and give it life! This is exactly what happened with the Patriots, even before the large-scale war, even before my appointment to the most important position of my life at the most important time of my life.

This is exactly what happened during my visit to the United States in August 2021 while I was serving as the DPM on the Re-Integration of the Temporary Occupied Territories. That’s when I first told our partners, “We need the Patriots.” Our country’s liberty and independence are under threat. And what did we hear? It’s impossible! But the impossible is possible. Today, our beautiful Ukrainian sky becomes more secure because Patriot air defense systems have arrived in Ukraine.

Our air defenders have mastered them as fast as they could. And our partners have kept their word. This is the result of hard work led by our President @ZelenskyyUA. Thank you to my colleagues @SecDef Boris Pistorius @BMVg_Bundeswehr @DefensieMin, and the American, German, Dutch people. We will win together.

Patriot
File Image: Patriot Systems

Meanwhile, Congressman Joe Wilson said on Wednesday that the Biden administration should consider providing Ukraine with cluster bomb munitions as there are two million available in US stocks to determine their effectiveness on the battlefield as Russia continues its special military operation.

“Those (cluster munitions) should be provided. With war criminal Putin sacrificing young Russians for his personal aggrandizement of oil money power, the human wave tactics could help stop that and certainly would determine their effectiveness. So, I hope every effort will be made to look into providing the cluster bombs that we have two million available,” Wilson said during a House Committee on Armed Services hearing.

This is not the first time US lawmakers have called on the Biden administration to send cluster munitions to Kyiv. In March, a group of Republican lawmakers sent a letter to President Joe Biden, urging him to send cluster munitions to Ukraine for use amid Russia’s special military operation there.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov has responded by calling on the United States not to follow the path of escalation. He added that US congressmen calling for the supply of cluster munitions to Kyiv do not realize what the consequences for the attackers could be.

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