Ukraine receives more Western war tech to secure airspace

Members of U.S. 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command stand next to a Patriot surface-to-air missile battery during the NATO multinational ground-based air defense units exercise “Tobruq Legacy 2017” at the Siauliai airbase some 230 km. (144 miles) east of the capital Vilnius, Lithuania, on July 20, 2017. Ukraine’s defense minister said Wednesday, April 19, 2023, his country has received U.S-made Patriot surface-to-air guided missile systems it has long craved and which Kyiv hopes will help shield it from Russian strikes during the war.
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A new shipment of Western war tech made its way to Ukraine on Wednesday, which included Patriot missiles from the United States, Germany and the Netherlands, said Ukraine’s Minister of Defense, Oleksii Reznikov.

“‘Patriots’ for patriots,” he tweeted, with an image of the new missile system.

Earlier this year, 65 Ukrainian troops traveled to the United States to train on the missile system and completed training in late March, reported Newsweek.

This has been a long time coming for Reznikov, as he also mentioned in his tweet that Ukraine had been asking for this system since in August 2021, before the war began, making the arrival of the system a “dream” come true, he said.

Over the course of the war, Russian missiles have caused damage to Ukrainian infrastructure and contributed to many civilian deaths, as reported by The Associated Press. With the new air defense system, Ukraine will be able to fight back against Russian air attacks at the steep price of $4 million a missile, which may make them a little selective.

Russia’s air attacks have used multiple drones recently, which are less expensive at around $50,000 each. Some of the drones have allegedly been from China, but China has denied the allegations and said in a statement Wednesday that it is advocating for peace, reported AP.

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