EU readies fresh cash for Ukraine’s air defence as Patriot stocks run low

Brussels is assessing a new payment request from Kyiv worth several billion euros to bolster Ukraine’s air defences, as Russia intensifies its aerial attacks and Ukraine seeks more US-made Patriot interceptors.

“We have received a new payment request. It is worth several billion euros and would cover Ukraine’s air defences, including the highly advanced PAC-3 Patriot air defence systems,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

EU countries now need to approve a derogation from the conditions of the Ukraine Support Loan, which limits non-European sourcing to 35% of the value of a defence product unless no European alternative is available.

The Commission president did not disclose the exact amount requested, as doing so could have put pressure on member states to approve the full sum sought by Kyiv, a Commission official who asked not to be named told Euronews.

Part of the payment could also come from NATO, although discussions were still ongoing, the official added. No other derogations were requested under this payment apart from the one covering the Patriots.

Russia has intensified its aerial attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks, at times launching as many as 30 ballistic missiles in a single night and further straining Kyiv’s already depleted stocks of interceptors.

Patriots are among the most advanced systems available for intercepting ballistic missiles. They take considerable time to manufacture, while stocks have been depleted by more than four years of war in Ukraine and by the US-Iran conflict earlier this year, which forced Gulf states to use large numbers of their own interceptors.