Romania Will Join Effort to Provide Ukraine With Missiles for Patriot System
Romania will provide Ukraine with interceptor missiles for the Patriot air defense systems as part of a joint NATO initiative.
This was announced by Romanian President Nicușor Dan following a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
According to Dan, this is a joint effort by NATO member states that have Patriot interceptor missiles in their stockpiles. Romania will contribute to the transfer in proportion to other Alliance countries.
“This is a joint initiative by NATO countries that possess Patriot interceptors. Romania is one of them, and, I repeat, Romania will make a contribution proportional to that of other NATO countries that possess interceptors,” the president said.
The statement came amid the European Union’s decision to allow Ukraine to spend €3.2 billion from a 90-billion-euro European financial program to purchase American Patriot interceptor missiles.
A separate topic of discussion between Zelensky and Dan was drone production. Contacts have already been established between Ukrainian companies and the Romanian Ministry of National Defence, and negotiations are at an advanced stage.
As part of the SAFE program, Romania has allocated €200 million for drones. The parties discussed how to accelerate the implementation of relevant projects so that these funds can be converted into finished equipment as quickly as possible.
The Office of the President of Ukraine confirmed that during the bilateral meeting, the parties discussed SAFE, joint drone production, infrastructure projects, humanitarian issues, and security in the Black Sea region.
The talks took place during the first summit of the Carpathian Integration Initiative in the Ivano-Frankivsk region. Representatives from eight countries in the Carpathian region joined this new format.
The day before, Militarnyi reported that the U.S. State Department had submitted to Congress a certification regarding the transfer to Ukraine, via Germany, of 10 missiles for Patriot systems.
In addition, Canada will allocate approximately $253 million for the purchase of missiles for Patriot systems and aviation munitions for F-16s. The procurement will be carried out through the U.S. JUMPSTART program, which uses contributions from allies to purchase critically important weapons for Ukraine.
The United Kingdom has also allocated £100 million for a new air defense package for Ukraine. It will include interceptor missiles for the Patriot system.
Source: Militaryni
