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Spain is sending a limited number of Patriot missiles to Ukraine, El Pais reported.
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However, it will stop shipping launchers for the system.
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It follows Ukraine’s urgent appeal to NATO to demand more air defense systems.
Spain will send a small number of Patriot missiles to Ukraine as pressure mounts from NATO and EU allies to increase aid to the country, Spanish newspaper El Pais reported, citing unnamed government sources.
“The transfer of a small number of missiles came after the Defense Ministry refused to hand over to Ukraine the batteries stationed on the Turkish-Syrian border since 2013,” the report said.
“It will be a very limited number as the Spanish war reserve is around 50 units and interceptors are very expensive,” it added.
Spain’s Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
This came after German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius criticized Spain and Greece for not sending their Patriot systems to Ukraine.
“Let’s say if a country has, for example, six or four Patriot systems and is not on the front line in the East, it can easily hand over a Patriot system,” he said in a television appearance earlier this week, The Telegraph reported .
When asked if this was aimed at Spain and Greece, he added: “We are talking to them now. I honestly can’t understand that.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made an urgent appeal to NATO nations earlier this month, saying Ukraine needed “seven more Patriots or similar air defense systems” to protect its cities from Russian attacks.
“Putin must be brought to earth and our skies must be made safe again,” Zelensky said. “It depends entirely on your choice… (the) choice as to whether we are actually allies.”
On April 21st Zelenskyy added to X: “‘Patriots’ can only be called air defense systems if they work and save lives, instead of standing immobile in storage bases somewhere.”
However, Spain has decided not to send any of its launchers for the Patriot system to Ukraine, the El Pais report said.
According to the report, the company currently has three Patriot systems, all purchased in Germany in 2004 and 2014.
The news comes as Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Greece could not offer Ukraine air defense systems such as the Patriot or the Soviet-developed S-300.
“Greece has supported Ukraine in various ways, including in the defense sector,” he said.
“However, we have been clear from the outset that we cannot give up defense systems that are critical to our deterrence capabilities,” he added.
Germany promised to deliver one of its Patriot systems to Ukraine after a phone call between Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Zelensky in April in which the Ukrainian president described “massive Russian airstrikes on civilian energy infrastructure.”
“We stand steadfastly on Ukraine’s side,” Scholz wrote in a post on X announcing the move.
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