The recent tragedy in Przewodowo apparently electrified some of our allies. The most interesting offer of support came from across the Oder River. German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht first declared her readiness to delegate Eurofighter combat aircraft to defend our airspace (from bases in Germany), and the day before yesterday – to deploy Patriot anti-aircraft systems in our country.
Defense Minister Mariusz Błaszczak announced that he had accepted the proposal – at least as far as it concerns the Patriots. Today, a telephone conversation between the two ministers was organized on this matter. German launchers would be stationed at the border with Ukraine to prevent the Russian campaign against Ukrainian power infrastructure from spreading further to our territory.
I accepted with satisfaction the proposal of the German Minister of Defense regarding the deployment of additional Patriot missile launchers in our country. During today’s telephone conversation with the German side, I will propose that the system be stationed at the border with Ukraine.
— Mariusz Blaszczak (@mblaszczak) November 21, 2022
As a chronicler’s duty, let us recall that the president of the ruling party once said: “I would not want German troops on Polish territory. At least seven generations must pass before this is acceptable.” It was in 2014. Knowing the realities of our country, one must assume that Błaszczak would not have given the green light without Kaczyński’s consent.
For now, it is not known when the German Patriots could reach Poland (hopefully not in six generations) or where exactly they would be deployed, even the size of the hypothetical contingent is unknown. Nevertheless, the implementation of this undertaking seems to be a foregone conclusion. Most importantly, there is a mutual political will. Germany has twelve batteries with PAC-3 MSE (Missile Segment Enhancement) and PAC-3 CRI (Cost Reduction Initiative) missiles. Two batteries are currently stationed in Slovakia and are to remain there at least until the end of next year.
An important ally gesture in the situation we find ourselves in. I just talked about this with Deputy Prime Minister @mblaszczak. We want the Patriot system proposed by Germany to be deployed at the eastern border – President @AndrzejDuda
— BBN (@BBN_PL) November 21, 2022
Currently, two American batteries of the Patriot system are stationed in south-eastern Poland. Their main task is to defend the Rzeszów-Jasionka airport, through which the lion’s share of equipment support for the fighting Ukraine is transported. In Kiev, however, they hope that the German batteries could defend something more.
“From the very beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, the Ukrainian state, the Ukrainian people, the Ukrainian diaspora, everyone asked: protect our skies, close the skies,” said Colonel Yuri Ihnat, spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force Command. – Give Ukraine weapons, give planes. We would like our skies to be protected with these complexes at least on this section of the front.
The problem, of course, is that using anti-aircraft batteries deployed on NATO territory to destroy targets in Ukrainian airspace would be an escalation comparable to the imposition of a no-fly zone. In practice, this would mean NATO joining the war – a step that the political leadership of the Alliance and individual member states have categorically rejected from the very beginning. Plus, we’re talking about German batteries.
Berlin started to help Ukraine a bit like Tuwim’s locomotive: “at first, slowly, like a turtle, sluggishly”, but now we are probably at the stage: “and the run accelerates, and it goes faster and faster.” But even speeding Germany will not be willing to start kinetic actions in the war in Ukraine.
Das #Flugabwehrraketensystem #PATRIOT sorgt für Sicherheit gegen Angriffe aus der Luft. Seit 1989 ist das System bei der #Bundeswehr im Einsatz und gilt, dank zahlreicher Weiterentwicklungen, auch heute noch als modern. In vier Fragen und vier Antworten stellen wir PATRIOT vor. pic.twitter.com/xiSVLOcTez
— Bundeswehr (@bundeswehrInfo) March 30, 2022
However, The War Zone website points to the possibility of using German batteries to help Ukraine without the need to launch missiles. Depending on where exactly the radar stations would be located, they could provide the Ukrainian air defense with data on potential targets in Ukrainian airspace.
Ukraine now needs every help in the field of air defense. This phrase has been a truism since the very beginning of the war, but in recent weeks the situation has taken on a new tragic dimension. The campaign against the power infrastructure, which the Russians openly admit, is intended to terrorize Ukraine and force its leaders to negotiate is becoming more and more acute. While Ukraine’s existing air defenses are remarkably successful against air attack assets, with every wave of dozens of missiles, at least some (somewhere in the afterlife, Giulio Douhet nods) will manage to break through and hit the target.
The whole of Ukraine is getting ready for a difficult winter. The country is threatened with multi-day blackouts covering large areas of the country, and to make matters worse, apart from the power grid, the heating installations are also out of operation. Meanwhile, this morning the temperature in Kiev was -2 degrees. In Lviv, thermometers showed -4. Those who can afford it buy their own generators. It is planned to evacuate the population from the recently recaptured parts of the Kherson and Mykolaiv oblasts, where the infrastructure is too damaged to survive the winter.
See also: Romania buys two squadrons of second-hand F-16s from Norway
Mark Holloway, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic
