Germany got hammered today when Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht asserted that German Patriot air defense batteries could not be deployed into Ukraine without consultation with NATO. After the Nov. 15 incident in which a Ukrainian air defense missile landed in Poland and killed two farmers, Germany offered Poland two Patriot batteries and Typhoon jet fighters to enhance Polish air defenses. Warsaw’s Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak initially welcomed the German offer with the caveat that the Patriot batteries should be deployed in eastern Poland, near the border with Ukraine.
Then, on Nov. 23, Blaszczak changed his mind and said the Patriot batteries should be deployed inside Ukraine. “After further Russian missile attacks, I asked Germany to have the Patriot batteries offered to Poland transferred to Ukraine and deployed at its western border,” Blaszczak wrote on Twitter. “This will protect Ukraine from further deaths and blackouts and will increase security at our eastern border,” he claimed.
At that point Lambrecht balked. “These Patriots are part of NATO’s integrated air defense, meaning they are intended to be deployed on NATO territory,” she said in Berlin on Nov. 24, as quoted by Reuters. “Any use outside NATO territory would require prior discussions with NATO and the allies,” she added.
