NATO members to meet as Ukraine calls for 25 Patriot systems to defend against Russian attacks

As NATO members get set to meet with Ukraine on Friday amid a desperate appeal from the embattled country for more air-de‐ fence systems, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called on alliance members to send an additional six U.S.-made Patriot systems to Ukraine as it faces an in‐ creasing barrage of Russian aerial attacks.

Germany's move comes after it announced on Satur‐ day that it was sending a third Patriot system to Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says its military needs 25 of the ex‐ pensive mobile units in order to down aircraft, ballistic mis‐ siles and drones - including Iranian-made Shahed drones that have been targeting the country's cities and infra‐ structure.

"Concrete decisions have to be taken in order to send to Ukraine more air defence," European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters at a G7 summit of foreign ministers in Capri, Italy, on Thursday.

"Otherwise, the electricity system of Ukraine will be de‐ stroyed, and no country can fight without having electric‐ ity."

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization says it has com‐ piled data on the various de‐ fence systems available and is working with allies to en‐ sure some of them are de‐ ployed to Ukraine.

But some defence experts doubt that the $1 billion US Patriot systems will be de‐ ployed on the kind of scale needed to make a real differ‐ ence for Ukraine, which has been fighting a war since it was invaded by Russia just over two years ago - particu‐ larly given the increased focus on the Middle East and Israel's need for interceptor missiles for its air defence.

Anger following Cherni‐ hiv attack

After at least 17 people were killed and dozens injured on Wednesday - when three missiles slammed into Chernihiv, a city in northern Ukraine, about 70 kilometres from the Russian border - Ze‐ lenskyy proclaimed on the online platform Telegram that the carnage could have been prevented if the coun‐ try had been given sufficient air-defence systems and "the world's determination to counter Russian terror had been sufficient."

Zelenskyy's comments are a nod to the palpable frustra‐ tion among those Ukrainian officials who have been pleading for more air-de‐ fence systems for months yet saw how global partners were able to rally last weekend when Israel came under attack by Iranian drones and missiles.

The United States, Britain and France helped down some 300 projectiles.

As Ukrainian Foreign Af‐ fairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba met his G7 colleagues in Italy on Thursday, he remarked on the two different responses: "Our job today is to find a way where our partners will design a mechanism, a way that will allow us also to avoid death and destruction in Ukraine," he told re‐ porters.

According to Ukrainian of‐ ficials, Russia fired more than 3,000 guided aerial bombs, 600 drones and 400 missiles at Ukraine in March, includ‐ ing 11 missiles that Zelenskyy said were launched at a ma‐ jor thermal power plant out‐ side of Kyiv, the country's capital.

He said the military had only enough interceptors to bring down seven of the mis‐ siles. The rest hit the plant, destroying it.

The northeastern industri‐ al city of Kharkiv, which sits 30 kilometres from the Russ‐ ian border, has come under attack several times in recent months, killing dozens and causing power outages. The region's governor declared the shortage of missile de‐ fence systems "catastrophic."

Patriot defence system in high demand

Ukraine has said it believes its partners have 100 U.S. Pa‐ triot systems as part of their arsenals, but Marina Miron, a post-doctoral researcher in the war studies department at King's College London, said she doubts many of them will end up in Ukraine.

"It's a very difficult sell ... after everything that has al‐ ready gone to Ukraine," she told CBC News during a phone interview. "You can only go so far if you are risking to undermine your own security as a state. That's where you draw the line."

According to data com‐ piled by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, the largest donor to Ukraine from January 2022 to January 2024 has been the European Union, which has pledged more than 80 billion euros ($117.3 billion Cdn) in mili‐ tary and financial aid, fol‐ lowed by the U.S. with a pledge of 67.7 billion euros ($99.3 billion). Canada has pledged 5.8 billion euros ($8.5 billion).

Miron said the Patriots are pricey, difficult to procure and in demand as Europe seeks to strengthen its own security in light of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

While a few additional airdefence systems might help protect Ukrainian infrastruc‐ ture in the short term, she said, the looming question is who is going to produce and pay for all of the interceptor missiles that will be required as Russia keeps targeting the country with waves of rela‐ tively inexpensive drones.

Miron said Germany's de‐ cision to send one of its airdefence systems came as an abrupt pivot, after the coun‐ try's foreign affairs minister had said just a few days earli‐ er that Germany had nearly depleted its supply of Patri‐ ots.

She said she believes Ger‐ many's decision to send the weaponry and lobby for oth‐ er countries to do the same is part of an effort to diffuse tensions with Ukraine over Berlin's refusal to send Kyiv some of its Taurus longrange missiles.

"Ukraine needs more than just one type of equipment," she said. "It's like a boat that has a lot of holes, and you're essentially plugging just one hole, hoping that it will not fill up with water."

Hope for long-delayed U.S. aid package

Even as Ukraine is buoyed by the prospect of the longstalled $60-billion US military aid package that could be voted on as early as Saturday in the U.S. House of Repre‐ sentatives, there is frustra‐ tion over the months of de‐ lays.

"It is not just about pick‐ ing up the pace," Yuriy Sak, an adviser to Ukraine's minis‐ ter of strategic industries, Oleksandr Kamyshin, said in a video interview from Kyiv. "It is about realizing that Rus‐ sia is not standing still all this time. Russia is building up their own capabilities."

Until recently, he said, Ukraine had an 80 per cent success rate of shooting down the missiles and drones, but now that Russia has stepped up its attacks, it's less.

WATCH | Ukraine says if it received more aid, it could stop Russian attacks:

On Dec. 29, Ukraine said it was able to shoot down just over 70 per cent of the more than 150 cruise missiles and drones that were fired at the country in the largest aerial attack of the war, which killed more than 30.

Sak said that while Ukraine is grateful for the support it has received from other countries, people on the ground can't help but make comparisons to the re‐ sponse Israel received during last weekend's attack by Iran.

"It is easier for [military experts] to understand the nuances that separate these two war scenarios," he said. "But for ordinary people ... a lot of us felt abandoned and neglected."