The Slovakian defense minister said Thursday that his country could give its S-300 missiles to Ukraine without creating a “security gap” within NATO if the West agrees to backfill supplies or provide security guarantees.
Highlights
- U.S.
- officials were caught off-guard by the move and promptly declined.
- Germany’s Defense Ministry indicated in a tweet that it would deploy some of its Patriot systems to Slovakia.
- Poland in an unusual public announcement, declared it was willing to transfer the jets to U.S.
- custody, allowing for Washington — not Warsaw — to give them to Ukraine.
- Officials have said that Soviet-made surface-to-air missile systems are familiar to the Ukrainian military personnel who would operate them, alleviating the need for training and eliminating the risk that more-advanced weapons might fall into Russian hands.