US Asks Japan to Provide Ukraine with Missiles for Patriot Systems
The US Congress has asked Japan to provide Kyiv with missiles for the Patriot air defence systems while a major military aid package for Ukraine is going through all the stages of approval, The Washington Post reports, citing anonymous US officials.
This week, Japan is expected to formally approve a policy change that will allow it to export several dozen Patriot missiles to the United States, replenishing Washington's stockpile.
This will give the United States the flexibility to send more modern air defence equipment to Ukraine, the article says. Tokyo manufactures missiles for the Patriot under a licence from Raytheon.
According to officials, these changes to Japan's export regulations will not explicitly mention the Patriot system, but will meet a key request from the administration of US President Joe Biden.
The Japanese government is expected to announce the changes in legislation as early as Friday. Tokyo has not yet presented a timetable, but a decision on the number of missiles is expected "relatively soon," the official said.
According to the newspaper, the US president raised the issue at a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at Camp David in August, during the historic trilateral summit, which also included South Korea, and at an economic summit in San Francisco last month.
The article also states that Seoul has tacitly promised to provide Ukraine with hundreds of thousands of artillery rounds over the past year - more than all European countries combined. According to officials, much of this ammunition has already been delivered.
Earlier, Germany confirmed that it had handed over the second Patriot system and missiles to Ukraine. In addition, Germany handed over nine Bandvagn 206 all-terrain vehicles, nearly 14,000 rounds of 155 mm ammunition from Bundeswehr and industrial warehouses, three remote demining systems and 14 anti-drone systems to Ukraine.
Ukraine also received eight Zetros truck tractors, four semi-trailers, eight Zetros tankers, four vehicles from Bundeswehr and industrial stocks, and 47,400 rounds of 40 mm ammunition from Germany.
Back in October, the German Ministry of Defence announced that it would send additional Patriot and IRIS-T systems to Ukraine, but did not specify the timeframe for their delivery.
The day before, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that the second Patriot system, which Germany promised to give to Kyiv, would start operating in Ukraine this year.