Ukraine's partners to allocate US$1 billion for air defence support

Leaders of five countries have pledged to provide Ukraine with additional air defence equipment, with a total of more than US$1 billion in support for Ukraine's air defence, new air defence systems and "hundreds of additional air defence interceptors over the next year."

Source: Joint Statement on Strengthening Ukraine's Air Defence by US President Joe Biden, Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the White House website

Quote: "Today, we are announcing that, collectively, we are providing Ukraine with additional strategic air defence systems, including additional Patriot batteries donated by the United States, Germany, and Romania; Patriot components donated by the Netherlands and other partners to enable the operation of an additional Patriot battery; and an additional SAMP-T system donated by Italy. These five strategic air defence systems will help to protect Ukrainian cities, civilians, and soldiers, and we are coordinating closely with the Ukrainian government so that these systems can be utilised rapidly. We are working on a further announcement this year of additional strategic air defence systems for Ukraine."

Details: In addition, in the coming months, the United States and partners intend to provide Ukraine with dozens of tactical air defence systems, including NASAMS, HAWK, IRIS T-SLM, IRIS T-SLS and Gepard.

The statement notes that several Allies, including Canada, Norway, Spain, and the United Kingdom, will continue to play an integral role in providing these systems, and many other supporters of Ukraine will provide interceptors.

The United States, in coordination with partners, has pledged to reallocate planned shipments of critical air defence interceptors to be delivered to Ukraine.

Ukraine is expected to receive hundreds of additional interceptors over the next year.

Quote: "As we strengthen Ukraine’s air defences, we are grateful to the coalition of more than 50 countries that continues to provide security assistance to Ukraine, as well as to the Immediate Action on Air Defence Initiative – to which partners have pledged more than US$1 billion in support of air defence for Ukraine – and the Integrated Air and Missile Defence Capability Coalition, co-led by Germany and France.

We also welcome NATO’s work to support Ukraine’s efforts to develop a NATO-interoperable integrated air and missile defence architecture. Our message to Moscow and the world is clear: Our support for Ukraine is strong and unwavering."

Background:

• The NATO summit in Washington is taking place from 9 to 11 July and, according to media reports, is expected to declare Ukraine's "irreversible" path to the Alliance.

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