NATO has pressed two European countries to give Ukraine more anti-aircraft weapons

The Ukrainian leadership turned to the Western allies with an urgent request for seven additional air defense systemssuch as US-made Patriots or Soviet-developed S-300s, as Russia steps up its air and missile campaign against Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure.

On Sunday, President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X:

Patriots can only be called air defense systems when they are functioning and saving lives, not standing still in storage bases somewhere.

Only Germany announced delivery of a Patriot system. Other EU leaders used last week’s summit in Brussels to personally urge Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of Spain and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of Greece to donate some air defense systems to Ukraine, according to sources close to the matter.

The demand for the donation of air defense systems was repeated at the meeting of the EU 27 foreign and defense ministers held in Luxembourg on Monday. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Defense Minister Rustem Umerov joined the meeting via video conference. Immediately after the meeting, no further promises were made about air defense systems.

It is known that Kiev is particularly interested in Greece’s aging S-300 systemswhich are already in the arsenal of the Ukrainian forces and with which they already have experience.

There are countries that don’t directly need their air defense systems to be very honest…Each country has to decide what it can do without

– said an EU diplomat.

Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares was asked by journalists on Monday whether the country is preparing to send national guardsmen to Ukraine. “We are aware that Ukraine needs air defense systems and especially Patriot systems,” he said. “Spain has always done its best [a segítségnyújtásért]”.

Officials say Poland and Romania, which also have Patriot systems, are under less pressure to consider deliveries to Kiev, given their more vulnerable position at the Ukrainian border.

Ukraine currently has at least three Patriot systems, including one US-supplied system and two from Germany. Kyiv also operates long-range surface-to-air missile systems developed by the former Soviet Union, including S-300 and S-200 systems. A modified and upgraded version of the latter was used to shoot down a Russian Tu-22M3 long-range strategic bomber in Russia’s Stavropol region last week, according to Ukrainian officials.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday that further pledges of air defense deliveries were expected to be “announced soon”, but gave no details on the countries or weapons involved.

NATO conducted an audit of what air defense capabilities its member states have and where they are deployed, Stoltenberg said, adding that

this mapping confirms that there are systems, including Patriot systems, available to Ukraine.

Cover image source: Getty Images