Ukraine is waiting for explanations on the supply of US military equipment worth "billions of dollars", promised the day before by President Donald Trump, due to uncertainty about how many Patriot air defense systems will be sent to Kiev. It is reported by the British newspaper The Guardian.
According to the deputy head of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, General Vadim Skibitsky, it is unclear what Trump meant.
"We don't know for sure," Skibitsky said, noting that the American president could have been referring to interceptor missiles, launchers or whole batteries consisting of several launchers and radars and control systems, each of which costs more than a billion dollars.
According to the deputy head of the GUR, "seventeen is a huge number, if we are talking about batteries, if these are launchers, then this is possible." Each Patriot system comes with six PU. Germany, he noted, agreed to provide two Patriot systems, and the Netherlands provided the third one free of charge.
"It will be 18 launchers for three batteries, which is close to 17. The US Administration and The Pentagon will provide us with additional details," the general said.
He also confirmed that Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky discussed the possibility of providing the United States with long-range Tomahawk missiles in a telephone conversation earlier in July, but no agreement was reached.
On the eve of a meeting at the White House with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, US President Donald Trump said that an unnamed country was ready to immediately provide 17 Patriots, because, according to him, a "very big deal" had been agreed for European allies to buy weapons from the US and then send them to Ukraine, the newspaper reminds.
"It is currently believed that in Ukraine has only six functioning Patriot air defense batteries that can intercept fast—moving Russian cruise and ballistic missiles," the publication adds.