Germany Takes Aim at Greece for Not Giving Ukraine Patriot Systems

Germany has criticized its NATO allies Spain and Greece for not donating their Patriot air-defense systems to Ukraine.

Kyiv has said it needs at least seven of the American-made surface-to-air missile batteries to protect its cities from Russia’s long-range bombardments.

Boris Pistorius, Germany’s defense minister, said: “Many countries have Patriot systems or comparable.”

“Let’s say if a country has, for instance, six Patriot systems or four and is not in the front line to the east, it can easily hand over a Patriot system,” he added in a television appearance on Tuesday.

Asked by the host whether it was a pointed criticism of Spain and Greece, Pistorius replied: “We’re talking to them right now. I honestly can’t understand.”

Germany this month wrote to dozens of countries to appeal for more air-defense systems for Ukraine as part of a campaign to plug gaps in Kyiv’s defenses.

But since the initiative’s launched, only Berlin has decided to send a Patriot system to Ukraine from its arsenal.

Greece refuses to send the Patriot system to Ukraine

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Greece can not offer air defense systems like Patriots or S-300 to Ukraine responding to pressure from EU and NATO allies to send more military aid to Kyiv.

“Greece is not going to send S-300 or Patriot to Ukraine,” Mitsotakis said in an interview in Skai TV late on Thursday.

European Union ministers said on Monday they were looking urgently at how to provide more air defenses to Ukraine but they stopped short of concrete pledges of the Patriot systems that Kyiv values most.

“We were asked and we explained why we cannot do it,” Mitsotakis said adding that these systems are “critical to our deterrent capability.”

Greece denied on Monday a report that is about to supply air defense systems to Ukraine, clarifying that no action would be taken that might compromise the country’s deterrent capability.

The government spokesman in Athens Pavlos Marinakis reacted to a report in the Financial Times suggesting that the government in Athens faces significant pressure to send US Patriot systems and Russian S-300s to Ukraine.

“We have already provided tangible assistance to Ukraine and its people. However, it must be emphasized that no action will be taken – and I stress this – that could even remotely endanger our nation’s deterrent capabilities or air defense,” Marinakis told a press briefing.

“We have consistently refuted such claims in the past, and I reiterate our stance emphatically today,” he added.

According to the FT report, European leaders personally urged Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his Spanish counterpart Pedro Sanchez during a summit in Brussels last week to supply the systems to Ukraine.

The two leaders, whose armed forces collectively possess over a dozen Patriot systems along with other assets like S-300s, were allegedly told that their own needs were not as pressing as Ukraine’s and that they were not currently facing imminent threats.

In 2021 Greece delivered a battery of Patriot anti-aircraft missiles to Saudi Arabia as well as 120 soldiers to work the weapons system. The then-Chief of General Staff, General Konstantinos Floros said that the mission of the Greek forces is to maintain peace and stability, especially in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East.