The transfer, according to the newspaper, took place on Tuesday near the Polish-Ukrainian borderBERLIN, October 11.
/tass/. Germany has handed over to Ukraine the first of four IRIS-T SLM air defense systems promised by Berlin. This was reported on Tuesday by Der Spiegel magazine.
According to the sources of the publication, the transfer took place on Tuesday near the Polish-Ukrainian border. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz promised to supply such air defense systems to the Ukrainian side in early June, when he spoke in the Bundestag. Initially, the transfer was scheduled for November. The remaining three complexes are expected to be sent to Kiev only next year, the specific dates are not yet known.
On Monday, German Defense Minister Kristine Lambrecht told reporters that Russia's latest airstrikes on targets in Ukraine demonstrate the importance of the early transfer of modern air defense systems to Kiev.
IRIS-T SLM missiles can hit targets at an altitude of up to 20 km and at a distance of about 40 km.
An air alert was announced on Tuesday morning throughout Ukraine. There was information about explosions in Lviv, Vinnytsia, Pavlograd, Ivano-Frankivsk, Krivoy Rog, Kiev, Dnepropetrovsk, Mykolaiv and Khmelnytsky regions.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in Ukraine in response to a request from the leaders of the Donbass republics for help. The West then imposed large-scale sanctions against Russia. Western states have increased the supply of weapons and military equipment to Kiev in the amount of billions of dollars.
