The West does not provide Ukraine with the air defense it needs

According to the bloc’s top diplomat, Kyiv is urging its allies to urgently provide seven Patriot air defense systems.

“It would be unfathomable if we couldn’t provide them, given that Western armies have over 100 Patriot batteries. And yet we can’t provide the seven they are desperately asking for,” Borrell said.

NATO nations promised last week to review their air defense stockpiles after Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged Ukraine to provide Patriot systems.

Borrell said he would call on European defense and foreign ministers to provide additional air defense weapons to Kyiv when ministers meet in Luxembourg this month.

“We have to fulfill the moral and political obligations we have to Ukraine,” Borel said.

“The situation is extremely difficult. The Russian military machine is operating at full speed,” he warned.

“The possibility of high-intensity conventional war in Europe is no longer a fantasy,” the diplomat told a conference in Brussels.

“We obviously have to do everything we can to avoid that. But to deter the adversary, we need the means to do that.”

Borrell predicted that strengthening the EU’s defense would become a much more important issue, a “third act” for the organization that was created to ensure peaceful trade on the continent.

“The U.S. umbrella that protected us during the Cold War and beyond may not be open all the time,” Borrell said.

“Maybe depending on who’s in power in Washington, we can’t rely on American support and American power to protect us.”

“We need to build our joint capabilities,” Borrell summed up.