Germany in talks with allies over Polish push for Patriot deployment to Ukraine

Germany said on Friday it was discussing with allies Poland's request that German Patriot air defence units be sent to Ukraine, after NATO's chief suggested the military alliance might not oppose such a move.

Germany said on Friday it was discussing with allies Poland's request that German Patriot air defence units be sent to Ukraine, after NATO's chief suggested the military alliance might not oppose such a move. "We are talking with our allies about how to handle Poland's ... suggestion," a German government spokesperson told reporters in Berlin.

Berlin offered Warsaw the Patriot system to help secure its airspace after a stray missile crashed and killed two people in Poland last week. Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak later asked Germany to send the fire units to Ukraine instead. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said such deployments should be decisions for individual nations, taking into account rules around final users.

"The specific decisions on specific systems are national decisions," he told reporters in Brussels. "Sometimes there are end users agreements and other things so they need to consult with other allies. But at the end of the day, it (the decision) has to be taken by the national governments," he added.

Stoltenberg's comments came after German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht on Thursday said sharing Germany's Patriot units outside NATO territory would require prior discussions with NATO and the allies. Patriots are produced by the U.S. company Raytheon.

On Friday, the Polish president said it was Germany's decision where its Patriot air defence units are stationed, adding that it would be better for Poland's security if they were on Ukrainian territory near the border. "From a military point of view, it would be best if they were located in Ukraine to also protect Polish territory, then they would protect both Ukraine and Poland most effectively," Andrzej Duda told a news conference in Kaunas, Lithuania. "But the decision rests with the German side."

On the sidelines of NATO drills in northeastern Poland, Blaszczak took a swipe at Berlin by saying he was surprised by the idea that the German Patriots might be too advanced to be transferred to Ukraine. "These are the old patriots, the Polish version is the newest ... the claim that the old German Patriots are very advanced is not true," he said.

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