US to send second Patriot air defense battery to Ukraine

One of the U.S. officials said the system would be sent to Ukraine from an airfield in southeastern Poland that the Pentagon has used as a staging base to send weapons and supplies to Ukrainian forces. Several Patriot batteries have been based there since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

U.S. military officials are considering replacing the system in Poland with another Patriot from elsewhere, this person said.

The move follows months of pressure from President Volodymyr Zelensky's government, which is facing regular bombings more than two years after the start of the war, to obtain additional military aid from the West, particularly air defense systems that could help restore some normality to Ukrainian citizens and their economy.

The Patriot, a renowned American system, is particularly coveted because, in addition to effectively protecting troops, urban areas and vital assets such as electrical installations, it is the only system proven capable of bringing down the hypersonic missiles that Russia launched at Ukraine. . The weapons are maneuverable and fly at low trajectories, making them difficult to detect and defend against.

News of the decision to provide Ukraine with the additional Patriot system, which costs more than $1 billion each, was first reported by The New York Times.

The stakes became clear Wednesday morning when the Kremlin launched a massive attack, sending six cruise missiles and more than 20 drones over Ukraine. In the capital Kyiv, air raid alerts sounded and explosions rang out throughout the night.

The Ukrainian Air Force said its air defense units managed to shoot down 29 of 30 incoming targets, including four cruise missiles, one ballistic missile, one aeroballistic missile and 24 attack drones.

The attack highlighted the threat that Ukrainian cities face daily, and the successful destruction of almost all the weapons supported kyiv's insistence on the need for modern air defense to repel constant Russian attacks.

Hours after the nighttime barrage, another missile attack targeted Zelensky's hometown of Kryvy Rih, killing at least nine people, injuring dozens more and damaging an administrative and residential building, officials said .

“Every day and every hour, Russian terror proves that Ukraine must strengthen its air defense with the support of our partners,” Zelensky wrote on social networks after the attack. “Modern air defense systems can provide maximum protection to our populations, cities and positions. We need it urgently.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who has been pressuring countries operating the system to donate spare parts, said Ukraine needs 26 batteries to fully protect the country from attacks Russian air raids underway, or at least seven to protect key sites.

Germany has delivered two Patriot systems to Ukraine and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has announced plans to deliver a third soon. The Netherlands also announced last month that it would soon assemble a Patriot system with its own components and those of its European allies, repeating efforts last year to provide Ukraine with a complete system.

Ukraine's challenge to protecting civilians intensified as anti-aircraft munitions dwindled over the winter and early spring – the result of a funding impasse in the US Congress that delayed American aid for seven months.

Ukraine is now trying to strengthen its missile shield, particularly around major population centers and critical energy infrastructure. Since March, Russia has waged a campaign against Ukrainian power plants and other energy infrastructure nodes, plunging many regions into darkness for long periods of the day.

Zelensky said Tuesday that the Kremlin had destroyed 9 gigawatts of his country's electricity generation capacity, about half of Ukraine's peak energy consumption last winter. With kyiv and other cities already facing power outages, fears are growing in Ukraine and among its partners that Ukraine could face a cold winter as it is unlikely to be in able to rebuild its production in time.

O'Grady reported from Kyiv. Alex Horton contributed to this report.