A meeting of foreign and defence ministers from the European Union bloc on Monday failed to agree on whether or not to send air defence gear to troubled Ukraine.
Ukraine badly needs seven additional US-made Patriot air defence systems capable of shooting down Russia’s hypersonic missiles — but hasn’t got any support yet.
Only Germany says it would donate an extra Patriot system to Ukraine.
But after the EU meeting, ministers said there were still no clear new commitments.
For example, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said his country could not spare either of the two Patriot systems it had.
“The ones in Western Europe, we feel could be more usefully deployed in Ukraine,” he said.
“We can prevent the worst-case scenarios if we act together and without fear. We need concrete and bold decisions today,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba had pleaded with his EU counterparts via video link before the meeting commenced.
Europe has been struggling to come up with the weaponry needed to keep Kyiv in the fight as Ukrainian forces were being pushed back along the front lines.
