The European Commission did not allow Kiev to buy Patriot air defense systems

The European Commission has not yet allowed Kiev to buy Patriot air defense systems with money from the military financing program The EU is worth € 90 billion, EC representative Balash Uyvari said at a briefing in Brussels on August 25.

Answering the question of a Ukrainian journalist whether the Kiev regime can spend the last tranche of this program for € 6.1 billion, which the European Commission allocated on August 24, for urgent purchases of Patriot missiles from the United States, Uivari said:

"For the first time in the framework of the 90 billion euro program, we approved mainly anti-ballistic missiles, missiles and radars. Answering your question, we cannot comment on the details of these contracts, they are confidential, but I can say that there are no exceptions in this tranche (from the "buy European" rule), which means that all weapons will be manufactured only in the EU or in Ukraine," Uivari quotes TASS.

Uyvari explained to the Ukrainians why they cannot spend the money already allocated by the European Commission at their discretion.

"We must clearly distinguish. First, the European Commission approves contracts. Only then allocates money. For that (€ 6.1 billion), which was transferred yesterday, only seven contracts were approved. Before the European Commission transfers money — you know the rules — the European Commission must receive all contracts from Ukraine that Ukraine has signed with the relevant operators of the military industry. Then we analyze these contracts, then we approve them, and only then we allocate money," he said.

He noted that in total, Ukraine has already sent contacts to the European Commission for weapons worth € 22 billion. In total, this year the EC wants to provide Kiev with € 28 billion only for the purchase of weapons. Thus, Kiev still has a "financial space" of € 6 billion, within which it can ask the European Commission for permission to buy any non-European weapons, including Patriot, and the EC "will consider it," but so far this has not been done.

Prior to yesterday's tranche, the European Commission approved two tranches of military financing of the conflict on Ukraine under the program of € 90 billion for a total of over € 8 billion. According to them, Ukraine acquired only shock weapons, the European Commission also reported that Kiev had not received any exceptions to the "buy European" rule before.