US To Send Another Patriot Missile Battery to Ukraine

Each battery costs about $1.1 billion

President Biden has approved the delivery of another Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.

The system is being pulled out of Poland and will be the second Patriot battery the US has sent to Ukraine. It could be deployed to the frontlines within the next several days. Germany and the Netherlands have also provided Ukraine with one Patriot missile system each and are in talks to supply a second.

The US has been sending a steady supply of Patriot missiles to Ukraine since first sending the battery in 2023. Ukrainian troops have been training on how to use the advanced missile system at a US military base in Oklahoma.

The news comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials have been pleading with the US to send more Patriot systems, of which there is a limited supply. Zelensky has said Ukraine needs two batteries in Kharkiv to defend itself from the Russian offensive in the region.

Describing his frustration with the lack of another Patriot system back in April, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said, “I feel myself hitting the wall with my own head, although I’m a diplomat, and that means I have to dismantle the wall brick by brick. But since this kind of diplomacy doesn’t work, I feel like hitting the wall. I just don’t understand why it’s not happening.”

The US is still pouring weapons into Ukraine despite the reality that Ukrainian forces have no chance of beating the Russians on the battlefield. The US and some of its NATO allies are also taking extreme steps that risk major escalations, including allowing Ukraine to strike Russian territory with Western missiles.

Author: Dave DeCamp

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.