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Germany has effectively exhausted its own stockpiles of air defense missiles and is no longer able to directly supply them to Ukraine from its own reserves, Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul announced Tuesday.
Источник: Wadephul was responding to questions from reporters regarding the shortage of air defense assets in Ukraine, according to Clash Report
Прямая речь: “Partly as we no longer have any. The air defense missiles that still remain, particularly for Patriot systems, are produced in America. To be honest, everything that currently comes out of production facilities goes straight to Ukraine. This is happening within a mechanism that is mainly financed by Europeans, primarily Germany.”
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Детали: The German foreign minister emphasized that Berlin is not to blame for the situation, stating the country has provided everything it had and continues to fund the majority of aid received by Kyiv.
“We have provided everything we had,” said Wadephul.
He underscored that this is justified, as Ukraine is defending the freedom of Europe.
Wadephul also called on other European countries to increase their contributions to strengthening Ukraine’s air defense capabilities. He recalled calls from German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius for partners to review their stockpiles and increase their utilization, noting that Germany has already taken similar steps.
Предыстория:
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy previously voiced concerns to Europe in Davos regarding issues with air defense missiles. However, NATO maintains that there were no delays in the delivery of Patriot missiles as Zelenskyy had stated, according to NATO officials.
- NATO subsequently reported that several partner nations would transfer air defense missiles from their own stockpiles to Ukraine to address the supply shortfall from the United States.
- Recently, Ukraine’s ambassador to NATO identified six countries that have been most helpful in procuring weapons from the U.S.
- On February 14, Zelenskyy stated that Ukraine received interceptors shortly before the massive combined Russian attack on February 12, enabling the downing of ballistic missiles.
- As of February 16, Zelenskyy instructed the leadership of the Air Forces, the Ministry of Defense, and Ukrenergo to prepare additional protective measures, considering intelligence information about Russia’s preparation for a new massive strike.
