«We cannot rely only on the USA, we must take our responsibility. We have the Patriots, we have the anti-missile systems, we have to take them out of the warehouses and send them to Ukraine, where the war is intensifying, and I am sure that we will do it quickly” said EU high representative Josep Borrell speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the G7 Foreign Affairs in Capri, 18 April.
After the tanks and artillery shells sent to Kiev but having proved insufficient to reverse the development of the conflict in favor of the Ukrainians, European nations are now invited by EU and NATO leaders to deprive themselves of even the few air defense missiles they have at their disposal.
Already on April 22nd Financial Times reported strong pressure on EU and NATO partners to deliver air defense systems to Ukraine, underlining the pressure on Greece and Spain. Until a few days ago, only Germany had agreed to supply another Patriot battery after those previously sent by Berlin and Washington are running out of missiles and have been partly destroyed by the Russians.
«There is a common and clear understanding of the need to provide Ukraine with more air defense capabilities. Some member states have made clear commitments, others need to discuss them but I believe that now the decision is mature and a lot needs to be done” Borrell said on the same day.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg he said on April 19 that Ukraine needs NATO aid even more and that delays in support have consequences on the ground every day: «This is why if the allies find themselves having to choose between achieving NATO’s capacity objectives and the provision of more aid to Ukraine, my message is clear: send more to Ukraine.”
«The Alliance has mapped the capabilities of the allies, there are systems that can be given to Ukraine,” Stoltenberg reported. «In addition to the Patriots, there are other instruments that can be supplied, such as the Samp-Ts», of Franco-Italian production. The logic that guides the assessments of NATO’s top political leader, not without cynicism, is based on two key concepts. The first is that the Atlantic Alliance “has no intention of being directly involved in the conflict” but aims to “support Kiev and prevent the war from spreading beyond Ukraine”, as he said yesterday in an interview with the newspaper Repubblica.
The second explained it on April 23rd at a press conference in Warsaw: «We must understand that the most expensive alternative is to allow Putin to win in Ukraine. Because then we will live in a much more dangerous world and will have to invest much more in our defense than the support we now provide to Ukraine. You can only invest in Ukraine’s security now. By providing support to Ukraine we help them destroy Russian combat capabilities that could potentially be used against us. Supporting Ukraine is not charity, it is an investment in our security, and the alternative is more expensive.”
NATO therefore considers a long season of war to be a given (if all is well only “cold”) with Russia and in this context it is better to help the Ukrainians fight for as long as possible to wear down and weaken the Russian military forces. These statements do not appear to include assessments regarding the destruction of Ukraine and the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of Kiev’s soldiers, nor do they even include an examination of the now limited military capabilities that the European partners can deploy after having donated so much of their scarce reserves in Kiev. Not only in terms of armored vehicles, artillery and ammunition but also of missile systems for air defense.
Kiev requests 7 Patriot batteries or Samp/T, the most effective in countering the Russian cruise missiles that every night hit military targets and large strategic infrastructures such as power plants, but there are few of them in Europe now, building new ones will take years and a lot of money and the military leaders of many nations are warning governments from the risk of finding ourselves without effective tools to defend our skies from military and terrorist threats.
Poland having Patriot batteries also deployed on the Ukrainian borders, he made it known that he could not cede them to Ukraine while Spain finally succumbed to pressure and will provide only a few Patriot missiles of the barely 50 it would have at its disposal according to what was reported by El Paìs.
In return, Madrid will supply Kiev with old Hawk anti-aircraft missiles, removed from the Spanish army and recovered from the warehouses, after having also sold the old batteries of the Spada system together with Italy. Even Italy, while keeping its military supplies secret from Kiev, seems to have agreed to supply a few more Aster missiles or perhaps an entire battery of Samp/Ts: Giorgia Meloni and Stoltenberg spoke about it yesterday in Rome.
Probably the one being withdrawn from Slovakia where he protected the allied country which today seems to be penalized after the installation of the social democratic government of Robert Fico, opposed to supplying weapons to Kiev and imposing sanctions on Russia. On April 27, the deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, said that “we are doing everything possible to help Ukraine, provide answers through the tools we have”, responding to a question on the willingness to send this defense system aerial.
In recent months Italy and France had sent jointly to Kiev a battery of Samp/T with several Aster missiles which proved to be very effective, even if the Russians destroyed at least part of the launchers. Paris has strengthened the Ukrainians with new components and other missiles but today finds itself dramatically short of air defense weapons. So short that they asked Greece to “loan” a battery of anti-aircraft missiles to protect the Paris Olympics from terrorist attacks.
A defeat for French grandeurespecially if we remember the diktats that Athens had to endure during the very serious economic crisis induced by the EU, when Berlin and Paris conditioned (it would be better to say blackmailed) the granting of loans for the acquisition of French armaments.
Defense Minister Nikos Dendias said on April 26 that the Patriot and S-300 long-range missiles supplied to the Greek armed forces will not be transferred (neither to France nor to Ukraine) because Greece will not deprive itself of «what is necessary for its defense and the protection of fundamental interests of the Fatherland”.
Dendias then added that «if France formulates in writing its verbal request for the supply of the Crotale short-range air defense system for the protection of Paris during the Olympic Games, our country will agree. Imagine if we, the country that signed a defense agreement with the French Republic, do not help the Olympic Games which represent everything Greek in the world”, said Dendias.
French military sources interviewed by the Greek newspaper Kathimerini They admit that if Paris intends to supply Ukraine with anti-aircraft systems then it needs assistance from allies to ensure the air defense of critical infrastructure within the capital hosting the Olympic Games.
For the benefit of those who love to grasp all the paradoxical aspects let us remember that the Crotales that Athens will lend to Paris are air defense weapons of French production and that France has given to Ukraine. Furthermore, in 2021, Greece rented a battery of its Patriots with 120 soldiers to Saudi Arabia which was defending ports and refineries in the Persian Gulf from the missiles and drones of the Yemeni Houthi militias.
The story relating to the safety of the Olympics clearly highlights the lack in Europe of air defenses capable of protecting our skies, even in the absence of wars and to protect events and summits: weapons present in limited quantities before the war in Ukraine and now in absolutely critical numbers.
A situation that is already causing economic and strategic effects certainly not unforeseen in Washington. The most advanced European missile system, the Italian-French Samp/T, cannot be produced quickly and in the numbers necessary to meet needs. In fact, Germany is leading a dozen nations in Northern and Eastern Europe to set up an anti-aircraft and anti-missile system known as Sky Shield based on three different lines of weapons: the German Iris-T, the American Patriot and the Israeli Arrow 3 .
At the same time the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen expressed her appreciation for the industrial initiative promoted in January by NATO and taken up by Germany, Holland, Romania and Spain which will lead to the production of a thousand Patriot missiles in Europe. That is, we will produce American missiles under license instead of developing the production of weapons and technologies made in Europe. In spite of the many chatter with which they have been “bombarding” us for years about the need to develop European defence.
