File image.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on September 27 that Ukraine received a MIM-104 Patriot long-range air defense system from Israel and that it was already in operation.
“The Israeli system is operating in Ukraine for a month,” Zelensky told reporters. “We will receive [another] two Patriot systems in the fall, that’s all I’m going to say.”
The Israeli military is reported to have operated some eight Patriot systems, locally named “Yahalom” [diamond in Hebrew]. Israeli PAC-2 systems were upgraded to the GEM+ standard which has better performance against tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles or warplanes in complement to the PAC-3.
Last year, the military officially decommissioned all of its Patriot air defense systems. Rumors of an agreement to transfer the systems to Ukraine began to emerge after that.
In January, it was reported that the United States took 90 Patriot interceptors out of storage in Israel and sent them to Poland to pass on to Ukraine.
A report by The New York Post published later in May revealed that Washington had requested that Israel return at least one of its aging Patriot systems to the United States for refurbishment, which would later be supplied by the Americans to Kiev.
In June, Israel issued a formal denial that it had directly supplied the Patriot system to Ukraine, after its ambassador in Kiev indicated that it had.
Ambassador, Michael Brodsky, told a Ukrainian YouTube channel to the surprise of everyone that Israel had sent the air defense system to Ukraine.
“These systems are now in Ukraine,” said Brodsky. “Israeli systems that were in service in the early 1990s, we agreed to transfer them to Ukraine, and unfortunately, we did not talk about it very much.”
The Israeli Foreign Ministry issued a statement at the time claiming that this was “not current,” and stressing that the country “did not transfer Patriot systems to Ukraine.”
Ukraine received eight Patriot batteries and additional launchers from the U.S., Germany and other NATO members over the last two years. The systems are a mix of PAC-2 and PAC-3. Most of these systems have already been damaged or destroyed by the Russian military.
A Patriot system costs around $1,1 billion. A single PAC-3 missile costs some $7 million and a PAC-2 missile could cost up to $4 million, depending on the version.
In addition to the Patriots from Israel, the U.S. is reported to be working to transfer to Ukraine another system from Germany or Greece.
Israel has voiced its support for Ukraine since the start of the Russian special military operation more than three years ago. However, before the Patriot affair, it refrained from supplying weapons to the country in order to preserve relations with Moscow.
While the air defense systems were not supplied directly from Israel, this still represents a shift in the country’s policy on Ukraine. The fall of the regime of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last year was likely what emboldened Israel. With the collapse of the regime the threat of Russian military supplies to the rival country ended. Still, Moscow could now respond by boosting military cooperation with Iran.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence
NOW hosted at southfront.press
Previously, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.org.
The .org domain name had been blocked by the US (NATO) (https://southfront.press/southfront-org-blocked-by-u-s-controlled-global-internet-supervisor/) globally, outlawed and without any explanation
Back before that, from 2013 to 2015, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.com
zelensky’s family is already operating in occupied palestine, so…
i make 2700-5701+dollar per week while i’m daring to the furthest corners of the planet. last week i worked by my pc in rome, monti carlo finally paris… this week i’m back in the usa. all i do are basic tasks from this one cool site.
see it,
https://extrapay1.blogspot.com/
and we wish “z” well on the patriot($)” given what iran did to them in june!…
trump nails the coffin! united states is the winner! europe is bankrupt and effectively subdued. russia and ukraine will fight for some years more (and all hope for any “union” is gone!) lmao. united states take europe and russia at once! now, time to focus on china. the dragon is a harder target! fuck the eu, goodbye russia!
what is this bs article? it’s better if you write about all the banks and war profiteers linked to the ukraine crisis.
russians don’t talk about the jew bankers that have been linked to all major wars and revolutions since the inflection between feudalism and neo feudalism. they have a blind spot and misguided thinking from fighting the nazis. nazis and israel share providence of the same judeo masonry criminal syndicate many russian oligarchs themselves are part of.
israel destroying terr0rists around the world.