Great pressure on EU countries as the West steps up air defense support for Ukraine

The US Department of Defense announced on April 26 a new $6 billion military assistance package for Ukraine as part of the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI). The package includes additional Patriot air defense missiles, artillery shells, drones and other equipment. This marks Washington's largest arms package for Kiev since the conflict with Russia broke out in 2022.

“This is the largest security assistance package we have committed to date. It will include critical interceptors for Ukraine’s Patriot and NASAMS air defense systems, multiple counter-unmanned aerial systems and support equipment, significant amounts of artillery, air-to-surface missiles, and maintenance and support equipment,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters.

The Pentagon has hailed the massive arms deal as a “historic” achievement. The weapons will be supplied through USAI, meaning they will be purchased from arms manufacturers using newly authorized aid funds rather than drawing from existing US arsenals.

Spain's El Pais newspaper reported on the same day that the country will send a "limited" number of Patriot missiles to Ukraine. Germany recently agreed to provide a third Patriot battery to Ukrainian forces.

As the US and some allies continue to provide weapons with a focus on air defense to Ukraine, some other NATO members are also considering whether to step up their support.

After more than two years of conflict, Ukraine is finding it increasingly difficult to stop Russian aircraft and missile attacks, leaving parts of its airspace virtually undefended. At a meeting with NATO officials earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kiev needed at least seven additional Patriot systems to provide adequate defenses.

“We have asked all member states to do whatever they can to strengthen Ukraine’s air defence capabilities,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters earlier this week.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed last week that Western alliance members had more air defence systems that could be sent to Ukraine and hoped to receive further notice soon.

President Zelensky said on April 26 at a meeting of the Ukrainian Defense Contact Group (Ramstein) that Ukraine needs long-range weapons and air defense systems, and informed that the Russian military has used more than 9,000 guided glide bombs against Ukrainian forces since the beginning of 2024.

Pressure on EU countries

Despite intense lobbying, some EU members appear reluctant to transfer their Patriot systems to Ukraine. As a result, EU member states are increasingly under pressure to provide Ukraine with urgently needed advanced air defense systems, but efforts are bogged down by reluctance to move equipment vital to regional defense plans.

Six EU member states – Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Spain – currently operate Patriot systems. Many of them have said they cannot send them to Ukraine because they remain part of their national or NATO defense plans.

Poland, which has two Patriot systems, and Romania would face less pressure to supply them to Ukraine because they are needed for their own territorial defense plans, EU diplomats said.

However, the other four EU member states face significant challenges in considering transfers to Kiev. EU diplomats say Greece has the largest number of Patriot systems and also the S-300 (air defense missile) system that Kiev is interested in, as it is a system with which the Ukrainian armed forces are more familiar.

In 2022, Greece offered to supply its S-300 surface-to-air missile system to Ukraine in exchange for Patriot systems, which Athens sees as vital to its security amid tensions with NATO member Türkiye.

But Greek government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis told reporters this week: “We have provided support to Ukraine and its people. However, it must be stressed that no action will be taken (regarding the Patriot transfer) that could jeopardize our deterrence or air defense capabilities.”

Spain has four Patriot systems, three of which are used to protect NATO's southern flank and one currently deployed on Türkiye's border with Syria. Asked by reporters about the possibility of providing Patriots to Ukraine, Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares hinted that Madrid could bolster Ukraine's air defenses, but avoided answering directly.

For his part, Dutch Foreign Minister Hanke Bruins Slot announced that the country was considering “all possibilities”, but warned that depleting the Netherlands’ current stockpile of weapons and defense equipment would be “difficult”.

“There are EU countries that do not need air defense systems immediately but are still protecting them in a confusing way while Ukraine is in dire need of them,” an EU diplomat criticized.

Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin commented that Patriot is not a "silver bullet" and that many factors will determine the course of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. According to the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW), it is certain that no weapon system is a "silver bullet", but Patriot is one of the very few air defense systems capable of intercepting Russian ballistic missiles and can also hit Moscow's fighter bombers beyond the range of Russian glide bombs.

ISW noted that Ukraine's declining air defense capabilities have allowed the Russian air force to severely weaken Ukrainian defenses along the front with glide bomb attacks.