Axiox: The US army transfers 90 patriot missiles from Israel to Ukraine
The US Army transferred about 90 Patriot air defense interceptor missiles from warehouses in Israel to Poland this week, in order to deliver them to Ukraine, according to Axios website.
According to Axios, this is the largest arms delivery from Israel to Ukraine since the beginning of the war in 2022.
Axios said that C-17 aircraft belongs to the US Air Force arrived at an air base in southern Israel, and left for Rzeszow, eastern Poland, which is a center for transporting weapons to Ukraine.
The sources added that the flight carried about 90 Patriot interceptor missiles, which Ukraine can use with its existing Patriot batteries.
Additional equipment, such as radars and others, will be transported to the United States first for refurbishment.
For his part, a spokesman for the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that the Patriot system was returned to the United States, adding that it’s not known to us whether it was delivered to Ukraine.
In the same context, Axios quoted sources as saying that Ukrainian officials contacted Washington and Israel regarding the issue of Israel returning the Patriot missiles to the United States and sending them to Ukraine, after the Israeli army announced that it had stopped operating them.
According to a senior Israeli official, “Israel informed Russia in advance of this step, and confirmed that it would return the Patriot system to the United States only, and wouldn’t supply Ukraine with weapons”.
The Israeli official added, “Israel informed Russia that this step is similar to that taken by the United States two years ago, when it transferred artillery shells from emergency stores in Israel to Ukraine”.
This comes after Israel had been hesitating to take this step for several months, fearing Russia’s response, perhaps by supplying Iran with advanced weapons.
“For weeks, Netanyahu refused to answer calls from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky regarding the issue,” a Ukrainian official told Axios.
However, Netanyahu finally agreed to the idea in late September.
At the time, Netanyahu wanted to speak to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in order to obtain his approval for an annual pilgrimage by ultra-Orthodox Israelis to the city of Uman in Ukraine, where a famous rabbi is buried.
However, Zelensky, in turn, didn’t answer the calls he received until after Netanyahu approved the Patriot deal, according to the Ukrainian official.
For his part, a spokesman for Netanyahu told Axios that he didn’t object to the Patriot system being taken out of service and returned to the United States, denying any connection between this issue and the pilgrimage to Uman in Ukraine.
