NATO Member Romania to Send a Patriot Missile System to Neighboring Ukraine

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis exits a voting cabin during European and local elections in Bucharest, Romania, Sunday, June 9, 2024. Voters across the European Union are going to the polls on the final day of voting for the European parliamentary elections to choose their representatives for the next five-year term. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis exits a voting cabin during European and local elections in Bucharest, Romania, Sunday, June 9, 2024. Voters across the European Union are going to the polls on the final day of voting for the European parliamentary elections to choose their representatives for the next five-year term. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)
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NATO Member Romania to Send a Patriot Missile System to Neighboring Ukraine

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis exits a voting cabin during European and local elections in Bucharest, Romania, Sunday, June 9, 2024. Voters across the European Union are going to the polls on the final day of voting for the European parliamentary elections to choose their representatives for the next five-year term. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis exits a voting cabin during European and local elections in Bucharest, Romania, Sunday, June 9, 2024. Voters across the European Union are going to the polls on the final day of voting for the European parliamentary elections to choose their representatives for the next five-year term. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)

NATO member Romania’s top defense body said Thursday that the country will donate a Patriot missile system to neighboring Ukraine to help Kyiv in the war with Russia as Moscow’s forces continue to bombard civilian areas and energy infrastructure.

The office of Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, who chaired the Supreme Council of National Defense meeting in Bucharest, said the decision was made in close coordination with allies and is conditional on Romania obtaining a similar or equivalent system. The US-made air defense system to be sent to Ukraine is one of several that Romania possesses, according to The AP.

“The decision was based on an in-depth technical evaluation of the Romanian authorities, all measures being taken to eliminate the risk of creating possible vulnerabilities for Romania,” Iohannis’ office said. “At the same time, they will continue discussions with allies so that our country’s air defense is further strengthened.”

The US has donated a Patriot system to Ukraine, and earlier this month approved sending another. Other allies, including Germany, also have provided air defense systems. US officials have routinely pressed for allies to provide air defense systems to Kyiv, but some Eastern European nations have been reluctant to give up the high-tech systems.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly urged Western allies to boost his country’s air defenses in the face of sustained Russian attacks on Ukraine's power grid, which in recent weeks forced energy companies to institute nationwide rolling blackouts.

“Romania’s position is and will continue to be unequivocal in its multidimensional support of Ukraine, alongside the international community, in its legitimate right to self-defense against Russia’s illegal and unprovoked aggression,” Iohannis’ office said.

After Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, NATO increased its presence on Europe’s eastern flank by sending additional multinational battlegroups to alliance members Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Slovakia.

Since then, Romania has played an increasingly prominent role in the alliance throughout the war, including opening an international training hub in southeast of the country for F-16 jet pilots from allied countries and other partners, including Ukraine.



Lavrov: Russia Will Abandon its Unilateral Missile Moratorium

FILED - 06 February 2023, Iraq, Baghdad: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaks during a press conference. Photo: Ameer Al-Mohammedawi/dpa
FILED - 06 February 2023, Iraq, Baghdad: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaks during a press conference. Photo: Ameer Al-Mohammedawi/dpa
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Lavrov: Russia Will Abandon its Unilateral Missile Moratorium

FILED - 06 February 2023, Iraq, Baghdad: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaks during a press conference. Photo: Ameer Al-Mohammedawi/dpa
FILED - 06 February 2023, Iraq, Baghdad: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaks during a press conference. Photo: Ameer Al-Mohammedawi/dpa

Russia will scrap a moratorium on the deployment of intermediate and shorter range nuclear-capable missiles because the United States has deployed such weapons in various regions around the world, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday.
Russia's move, long signaled, will kill off all that remains from one of the most significant arms control treaties of the Cold War, amid fears that the world's two biggest nuclear powers could be entering a new arms race together with China, Reuters reported.
Russia and the United States, who both admit their relations are worse than at any time since the depths of the Cold War, have both expressed regret about the disintegration of the tangle of arms control treaties
which sought to slow the arms race and reduce the risk of nuclear war.
Asked by state news agency RIA if Russia could withdraw from the
New START treaty before its expiry in February 2026, Lavrov said that there were currently "no conditions" for a strategic dialogue with Washington.
"Today it is clear that, for example, our moratorium on the deployment of short- and intermediate-range missiles is no longer practically viable and will have to be abandoned," Lavrov said.
"The US has arrogantly ignored the warnings of Russia and China and in practice has moved on to the deployment of weapons of this class in various regions of the world."
The Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, signed by Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan in 1987, marked the first time the superpowers had agreed to reduce their nuclear arsenals and eliminated a whole category of nuclear weapons.
The United States under former President Donald Trump formally withdrew
from the INF Treaty in 2019 after saying that Moscow was violating the accord, an accusation the Kremlin repeatedly denied and dismissed as a pretext.
Russia then imposed a moratorium on its own development of missiles previously banned by the INF treaty - ground-based ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 km to 5,500 km (310 miles to 3,417 miles).
Trump in 2018 said he wanted to terminate the INF Treaty because of what he said were years of Russian violations and his concerns about China’s intermediate-range missile arsenal.
The United States publicly blamed Russia's development of the 9M729 ground-launched cruise missile, known in NATO as the SSC-8, as the reason for it leaving the INF Treaty.
In his moratorium proposal, Putin suggested Russia could agree not to deploy the missiles in its Baltic coast exclave of Kaliningrad. Since leaving the pact, the United States has tested missiles with a similar profile.
Russia fired a new intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile known as "Oreshnik", or Hazel Tree, at Ukraine on Nov. 21 in what Putin said was a direct response to strikes on Russia by Ukrainian forces with US and British missiles.