Slovakia ready to supply S-300s to Ukraine to protect its airspace | War in Ukraine

We are ready to do this immediately as soon as we have a suitable replacement.Slovak Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad said Thursday in the country’s capital Bratislava during a press conference alongside US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Soviet-designed, the S-300 surface-to-air missile systems are designed to hit targets at higher altitudes than the Javelins and Stingers already supplied to Ukraine by the United States, and have greater range.

Those owned by Slovakia constitute the only strategic air defense system we haveexplained Minister Nad.

Hand them over to Ukraine without getting another air defense system or have a capacity [de défense] guaranteed for a while would create a security vacuum within NATOhe added.

Mr. Nad added that he was in talks on this subject with the United States and other allied countries.

Asked about the possibility of providing Slovakia with replacement systems such as the Patriot missiles, his American counterpart confirmed that discussions had been held, without going any further.

These are things that we will continue to work on with all of our allies, and it is certainly not an issue that only affects the United States. This is a NATO issuesaid Austin.

However, the Slovak proposal could find takers elsewhere.

On Twitter, the German Ministry of Defense expressed its willingness to deploy Patriot systems in Slovakia.

The Slovak offer follows the promise made the day before by US President Joe Biden.

In addition to announcing an additional US$800 million in military aid to Ukraine, Mr. Biden spoke ofhelp Ukraine “to acquire longer-range air defense systems than the Stingers already supplied.

However, he did not specify what these defense systems would be.

From a military source, Agence France-Presse specifies that Mr. Biden was precisely referring to S-300s.

High-performance systems

This file photo, dated June 2019, shows S-300 long-range air defense systems during military exercises near Astrakhan, Russia. These are comparable systems that Slovakia would be ready to hand over to Ukraine.

Photo : Archyde.com / SERGEY PIVOVAROV

Effective against helicopters and low-flying planes, the Stingers proved insufficient to counter Russian cruise missiles, a gap that the S-300 could fill.

Ukraine already had S-300s before the Russian invasion, but pleaded for more as Russian forces intensified their bombing of key cities.

Equipped with powerful and autonomous radars, these mobile anti-aircraft batteries, which are loaded on trucks, are automatically triggered when a threat is spotted.

Competitors of the American Patriot air defense systems, the S-300 are the origin of Soviet systems, which were later modified by the Russian army and whose operation the Ukrainian army is familiar with.

US officials also argue that the Ukrainians would not need training to operate them.

A compromise solution

Two Mig-29 fighters take off from a runway in Estonia.

Poland has offered, in vain, to cede its fleet of Mig-29 fighters to Ukrainian pilots, who are trained to fight in this type of aircraft.

Photo : Archyde.com / Peter Andrews

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky calls, in vain, for the establishment of a no-fly zone in the countries of theNorth Atlantic Treaty Organizationwho say they fear a military escalation that could lead to a world war.

Ukraine is also calling for Mig-29s – Soviet-era fighter jets.

Last week, Poland took Washington and its other allies in the transatlantic organization by surprise by offering to put Mig-29 planes “without delay and free of charge” available to the US military for subsequent handover to Ukraine. In exchange, Poland offered to buy American fighter planes.

The Biden administration has, however opposed an end of inadmissibility to this offer, again for fear of an escalation likely to involve NATO in the war and of a lack of effectiveness.

Ukraine has therefore made the high-performance S-300 missiles a central part of its armament demands, because the Ukrainians see them as a compromise solution.

A military expert interviewed by CNN opined that the range of the S-300s would somehow allow Ukraine to secure a no-fly zone on its own.

Zelensky wants a no-fly zone, here it is, illustrated retired Brigadier General Steven Anderson on the airwaves of the American continuous information network. These defense systems, he argued, would have the same effect than a no-fly zone, without the risks.

Two other NATO countries, Bulgaria and Greece, also have S-300s.

The United States also has several S-300 missiles in its possession, according to the AFP military source who says that the Biden administration intends to send them to Ukraine in the coming days.

After the collapse of the USSR, the United States acquired from Belarus in 1994 an anti-aircraft battery S-300, which included, according to archives of the New York Timesa missile launcher, radars and missiles.

The additional American military aid announced on Wednesday also includes 800 new Stingers which, according to information from the White House, are added to the 600 already provided, as well as around 100 drones.

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