BERLIN/WARSAW (Reuters) – Germany said on Wednesday it was in talks with allies to send German Patriot missile defense systems to Ukraine at Poland’s request. This comes after NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg suggested he might not oppose such a move.
“We are discussing with our allies how to deal with the Polish proposal,” a German government spokesman told reporters in Berlin.
Germany has offered Poland Patriots to help protect Poland’s airspace after a missile landed in Poland killing two people last week. Polish Defense Minister Właszczak asked Germany to send it to Ukraine instead.
Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels that such a deployment should be decided by each country, taking into account the country’s rules of whether it is used.
In a press conference in Kaunas, Lithuania, on the 25th, Polish President Duda said that patriots “from a military point of view would be better deployed in Ukraine so as to protect Polish territory. They can be protected in the most effective way” , he has declared. However, he added that “Germany will decide” where he is deployed.
