Washington to send another Patriot missile system to Ukraine: US media
Ukraine's Zelenskyy has recently called for several additional Patriot systems, including two to defend the eastern Kharkiv region, where Russia has recently been pressing a new offensive.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits a military training area to find out about the training of Ukrainian soldiers on the “Patriot” anti-aircraft missile system, at an undisclosed location, in Germany, June 11, 2024. / Photo: Reuters
The United States will send another Patriot missile air defence system to Ukraine in the coming days, US media reported, citing unnamed administration and military officials.
News of the decision to provide the advanced system came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pleaded on Tuesday for more air defences at the start of an intense week of diplomatic meetings with Western partners.
Zelenskyy has recently called for several additional Patriot systems, including two to defend the eastern Kharkiv region, where Russia has recently been pressing a new offensive.
"Russia's greatest strategic advantage over Ukraine is superiority in the sky. It is missile and bomb terror that helps Russian troops advance on the ground," Zelenskyy told a reconstruction conference in Berlin Tuesday.
"Air defence is the answer," he added.
The New York Times reported that the new Patriot system destined for Ukraine was currently deployed in Poland, defending a rotating American force slated to return to the United States.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment on the transfer.
The delivery would be at least the second Patriot system sent to Ukraine by Washington.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, speaking at the same conference as Zelenskyy on Tuesday, urged allies to dig deeper in their arsenals to help "strengthen Ukraine's air defence with everything that is possible."
Germany has contributed three Patriot systems to Kiev.
Downing multiple drones
On other hand, at least four people were injured as Ukraine claimed that it downed multiple drones and missiles amid an overnight Russian air strike.
Commander of Ukraine’s Air Force Mykola Oleshchuk claimed on Telegram that the country’s air defences downed 24 drones and five missiles over the Kiev, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Poltava, Kharkiv, and Vinnytsia regions.
Oleshchuk claimed that six missiles were launched by Russia in total.
Dnipropetrovsk Governor Serhii Lysak said on Telegram that three people were injured in his region’s Synelnykove district, indicating that nine private residences were damaged.
Meanwhile, Kiev Governor Ruslan Kravchenko also said on Telegram that a person in the country’s capital was injured due to falling debris from the drones downed over the region.
Indicating that the air raid alarm in the region lasted almost two hours, Kravch enko said a number of objects in two districts of the Kiev region was noted, including an industrial facility and a warehouse where fires have broken out.
Elsewhere, authorities in the country’s Zaporizhzhia, Poltava, Kharkiv, and Vinnytsia regions did not report any casualties or damages caused by the overnight air strike.
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