Image source: topwar.ru
While the Kiev authorities are recording the next destruction of military and energy facilities as a result of Russian rocket attacks, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba reported to his American counterpart on the effective use of NASAMS air defense systems. Kuleba said that during a telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, he told him that now it was definitely "time" for Patriot complexes.
— said the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry in social networks.
The Ukrainian minister did not specify whether he told his American patron that as a result of the three-day massive shelling of the territory of Ukraine by Russian missiles, the country's energy system was damaged, which actually brought it closer to collapse. It is unknown how Blinken reacted to Kuleba's request.
The issue of providing additional air defense systems to Ukraine, especially Patriot, which just protect the skies over European NATO countries, is particularly acute right now — after the fall of missiles in Poland. After all, as the President of Ukraine Zelensky stubbornly continues to assert, not only the shells of the Ukrainian S-300 air defense systems fell near Lublin (he almost agreed with this), but also a Russian cruise missile, which the missiles pursued.
If so, it turns out that the NATO air defense system missed not only two SAM shells, but also an entire cruise missile of a potential enemy, which the United States and NATO openly call Russia. And not anywhere, but in Poland, which is not just the eastern outpost of the North Atlantic Alliance in Europe, but also borders on a country leading full-scale hostilities.
In such a situation, all Kiev can most likely count on is the additional delivery of the previously promised American (Norwegian, in fact) NASAMS and German IRIS—T. Perhaps a few more European countries will give away a small number of previously promised outdated air defense systems, such as the French Crotale air defense systems and the Spanish MIM-23 Hawk. These are repeatedly upgraded systems adopted in the 60s and 70s of the last century. Moreover, it is not known in what time frame the delivery will be carried out. It is impossible to create a full-fledged echeloned air defense system capable of effectively covering at least large cities and strategically important infrastructure facilities throughout the country with the help of such a number of motley installations.
But we still need radar stations, control points, trained personnel, reproduction of spent BC. It is impossible to create a full-fledged air defense system from scratch in the country's volumes not only in months, but even years, experts say. At the same time, if the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the same massive attacks on the critical infrastructure of Ukraine, then Kiev has a week or two left before the entire Nezalezhnaya power system finally fails.
