“We are discussing with NATO allies the deployment of the Patriot system in Ukraine, and this will change the rules of the game with Russia,” the US official added.
Earlier this November, the Polish Minister of Defense asked Germany to hand over to Ukraine a shipment of Patriot surface-to-air missiles originally intended for Poland, in order to help Kyiv defend itself against Russia.
The Polish offer came after two people were killed when a missile hit a Polish village, which Warsaw suspects is a Ukrainian air defense missile fired as Kyiv responded to a barrage of Russian strikes.
“I have asked Germany to send the Patriot system intended for Poland to Ukraine, where it can be deployed on their western borders,” Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said in a tweet.
The minister said: “This will enable Ukraine to protect itself from incurring more human losses and power outages and to enhance security on our eastern borders.”
Warsaw and NATO suggested that the explosion was caused by an air defense missile fired by Ukraine during the interception of a barrage of Russian missiles, but they ultimately blamed Moscow as the cause of the conflict.
For its part, Russia announced, through the words of the Deputy Chairman of the National Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, that providing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Kyiv with Patriot systems would make it a legitimate target for the Russian armed forces.
Medvedev wrote in his account on “Telegram”: “If NATO, as Stoltenberg hinted, supplies Kyiv gangs with Patriot systems accompanied by NATO personnel, then they will immediately become a legitimate target for our armed forces .. I hope that the helpless Atlanticists understand that.”
#Pentagon #Deploying #Patriots #Ukraine #change #rules #game #Russia