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Germany is to help equip Ukraine with additional US Patriot air defence batteries within two to three months while providing extra launchers in the coming days.
German defence minister Boris Pistorius said on Friday his government had reached a deal with Washington to backfill its own supply of air defences and rise to the top of the US production queue.
The deliveries will give a much-needed boost to Kyiv’s efforts to fend off Russian aerial assaults on Ukrainian cities, which have expanded hugely in recent months.
Pistorius said priority treatment for Germany’s orders of latest-generation Patriot systems was a “pre-requisite” for the deal under which Berlin will supply Kyiv with components and launchers.
“This commitment from the US side is there,” Pistorius said. “Therefore, Germany can support Ukraine initially with launchers and then with additional Patriot system components. Once again, it shows: Germany is by far Ukraine’s strongest supporter in the field of air defence.”
The German announcement came a day after waves of Russian missiles and drones targeted Kyiv, killing 31 people, including five children, in the second deadliest aerial bombardment on the Ukrainian capital since the full-scale war began in 2022. Another 159 people, including 16 children, were injured in the strikes.
Ukraine is believed to currently have at least six functioning Patriot systems to protect its most critical areas, particularly the capital, Kyiv, three of them supplied by Germany. But that is too few to cover what is the largest country by area fully within Europe when under relentless attacks, officials say.
In July alone, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday, Russia had fired more than 5,100 glide bombs against Ukraine, more than 3,800 Iranian-designed Shahed suicide drones and nearly 260 missiles of various types — 128 of them ballistic.
Ukraine is believed to have at least six functioning Patriot systems, three of them supplied by Germany © Ina Fassbender/AFP/Getty Images
Ukrainian officials expect to receive three Patriot batteries from European allies in the next few months, as well as the extra launchers that will be sent in the coming days.
At a meeting with Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte at the White House last month, US President Donald Trump said he was willing to provide Patriot systems to Ukraine with European governments picking up the bill.
Trump’s decision came as he described growing increasingly frustrated by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s refusal to negotiate a ceasefire and engage in meaningful peace talks with Zelenskyy.
The US president last month said he would give Putin 50 days to agree to a truce or else face sanctions — but he narrowed that window this week to just 10 days over the Russian leader’s intransigence. The deadly air strikes on Kyiv came three days later.
On Friday, Putin projected nonchalance at Trump’s ultimatum.
“As for any disappointments on the part of anyone, all disappointments arise from inflated expectations. This is known as a general rule,” Putin said without mentioning Trump or his 10-day deadline specifically.
“In order to approach the issue peacefully, we need to have detailed conversations and not in public,” Putin added.
Under the arrangement with Germany, Berlin will provide Ukraine with additional Patriot “components” allowing Ukraine to increase the number of batteries it can deploy around the country, rather than complete systems.
A Patriot battery, made by US defence giant RTX, comprises a radar unit, a control station, a power plant, an antenna mast, multiple launchers as well as interceptor missiles. Other European allies are expected to provide further components to make up full systems.
It takes a reported two years to manufacture a new Patriot system. Berlin said it would acquire its new Patriots “at an accelerated pace”.
Ukrainian defence minister Denys Shmyhal said in a statement the expedited new Patriot launchers to Kyiv with additional components to follow was “the result of joint efforts of the US, Germany and other Nato countries”.
“More air defence capabilities for Ukraine means more innocent lives saved,” he said.
Additional reporting by Courtney Weaver in Berlin