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17 Patriot For Ukraine: What Trump Meant By It

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17 Patriot For Ukraine: What Trump Meant By It

How many air defense systems will Kiev receive.

US President Donald Trump has announced the sending of 17 Patriot surface-to-air missile systems to Ukraine. Are we talking about 17 full batteries or launchers? The website Charter97.org talked to Ukrainian military and political observer of the group "Information Resistance" Alexander Kovalenko about it:

- Only the US president knows what he meant when he talked about 17 "something out there". If we're talking about 17 systems, i.e. full batteries, that's too much. Especially given the $10 billion aid package - 17 systems just don't fit in there. So, most likely, the U.S. president was referring to 17 launchers or, roughly speaking, about four batteries.

This is more in line with the $10 billion aid package. It seems to me that this is exactly what was meant. There is often confusion in our information space: a "system" is understood as a launcher, although in the Western classification a system is actually a battery. A battery can include 4, 6, 8, and sometimes even 10 launchers. But most often we received batteries consisting of 4 or 6 launchers.

Hence, Donald Trump, since he is not an expert in military affairs, made a mistake, meaning exactly 17 launchers.

- How will such a number of Patriot change the situation with the protection of major Ukrainian cities from Russian strikes?

- First of all - additional coverage of at least one city of millions. This is the first point. The second - protection of at least one important facility from strikes by ballistic missiles, aeroballistic missiles, as well as an opportunity to strengthen and expand the cover of Kiev. Including the Kyiv region by increasing the security zone.

One of the facilities can be used to protect an area close to the line of battle. It is important that if we get a full-fledged battery of four launchers, but together with them we get additional radars and control complexes, we can form two mini-batteries of two launchers each. Or even one complex, which would be in a permanently deployed, mobile state and would cover certain position areas. There could be many variants of use.

- At the level of rumors and media reports, there was a story about "wandering Patriot", allegedly the AFU used one installation on the frontline, which resulted in huge losses to Russian aircraft. Now that Ukraine will have a sufficient number of Patriot, could some of them appear, say, near the front line or the borders of the Russian Federation, which would lead to losses in Russian aviation?"

- Yes, quite possible. If we get new systems, new launchers, we can really expand our ability to repel attacks from Russian tactical aviation. Including destroying this tactical aviation itself. Therefore, I absolutely do not rule out this option. Moreover, I am sure that it is being considered.

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