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Front News Georgia
Germany plans to send five additional PAC-3 interceptor missiles to Ukraine, provided that other countries collectively contribute 30 PAC-3 missiles, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said following a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group.
“Germany plans to send five additional PAC-3 interceptor missiles to Ukraine if other countries send a total of 30 PAC-3s. We all know that this means saving lives… Protecting the skies remains one of our key priorities. Germany has already handed over five out of its 12 Patriot systems. We have also delivered IRIS-T systems,” Pistorius stated.
Following the meeting, Ukraine’s Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said that countries participating in the Contact Group had pledged a total of $38 billion in assistance to Kyiv.
“Today our colleague Pistorius announced a fantastic initiative, and I believe it will help us receive additional PAC-3 missiles soon, alongside those we expect to obtain through the PURL programme,” Fedorov said.
According to him, Ukraine’s partners also announced the allocation of $500 million for the PURL programme, funds that will be used in particular to purchase PAC-3 missiles from the United States.
Fedorov noted that Russia launches up to 20 ballistic missiles at a time — around 100 missiles in a single large-scale attack — and stressed that no air defence system in the world is fully prepared to counter such numbers.
“Our goal is to secure PAC-2 and PAC-3 missiles,” he said, adding that there are also issues regarding missiles for SAMP/T systems and that Europe must increase production of such weapons.
“The whole world must cooperate with Ukraine, and Ukraine with the whole world, to produce more PAC-3 missiles or similar systems to defend against such attacks,” Fedorov stated.
Patriot Advanced Capability-2 (PAC-2) and Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) represent two different generations of interceptor missiles, differing significantly in their target engagement methods.
