Ukraine Foreign Minster Dmytro Kuleba on Nov. 17 revived calls for the U.S. government to provide Patriot air defense systems as Russia continues waves of long-range missile strikes on the country’s civilian and military infrastructure.
Kuleba called U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken as Ukraine was being struck by about 60 missiles launched by Russia. He thanked the U.S. government for providing Kongsberg/Raytheon Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS), but added that Ukraine needs more advanced air defense systems.
“I am also convinced that the time for ‘Patriots’ has come,” Kuleba wrote in a read-out of the call with Blinken that he published on Twitter. Ukraine officials also have asked European governments to transfer Aster 30 SAMP/T air defense systems.
NATO officials have said that it is likely that at least one 5V55 interceptor fired by a Ukrainian S-300 air defense battery accidentally landed in Poland on Nov. 15, killing two civilians. But the officials blame the incident on the Russian decision to launch a wave of about 100 missiles into Ukraine, including deep into the western half of the country, which borders Poland.
The event, however, highlighted the risks associated with Russia’s ongoing missile campaign against Ukraine.
Since February, U.S. government officials have approved the sale and transfer to Ukraine of NASAMS, Hawk and Avenger air defense batteries, as well as thousands of Stinger man-portable air defense systems. The U.S. Army also facilitated the transfer of a Slovakian S-300 air defense system to Ukraine last April. The Army repositioned a U.S.-operated Patriot battery to Slovakia to back-fill the loss of the S-300 system.
But some U.S. officials have expressed openness to the idea of transferring Patriots to Ukraine. In remarks on Oct. 12 in Brussels, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, mentioned the Patriot system as one of the options that could be used to fulfill Ukraine’s desire for an integrated air and missile defense network.
Two weeks later, Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, suggested a near-term source of the systems. As a protest against the Arab kingdom’s decision to join an OPEC move in October to reduce oil output, the U.S. government could reposition U.S.-crewed Patriot batteries in Saudi Arabia to Ukraine’s neighbors, or transfer the batteries directly to Ukraine, Murphy said.
But some military experts have questioned the usefulness of supplying Patriot batteries to Ukraine in the short term. Noting that the Army runs a 53-week course to train soldiers how to repair the Patriot, Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote on Oct. 17 that while Patriot is not suitable for Ukraine in the near term, it would help during the post-war reconstruction period.
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