German Patriot air defense systems may strengthen Poland’s air defense

Germany offered Warsaw assistance in bolstering air defense after a missile fell in Poland.

In particular, Germany proposed to deploy its Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems (SAMs) in Poland.

This was stated by Christine Lambrecht, Defense Minister of Germany, according to Reuters.

Also earlier, the German government announced that it would offer Poland assistance in patrolling airspace with Eurofighter Typhoon fighters after an incident with a missile crash in the Polish village of Przewodów near the border with Ukraine.

“We offered Poland support in securing airspace – our Eurofighter fighters and Patriot air defense systems,” Lambrecht said.

After the Russian full-scale invasion in Ukraine in February 2022, NATO has strengthened air defense in Eastern Europe.

It is noted that Germany currently has 12 Patriot SAMs in service, two of which are stationed in Slovakia.

Recall, on November 15, at 15:40 local time, an explosion sounded in the village of Przewodów on the territory of the farm. This happened during a massive Russian attack on the territory of Ukraine. Two people died at the scene.

Later, the Polish Foreign Ministry reported that the explosion was caused by a Russian-made missile.

The next day, Poland stated that it did not consider the missile incident in the village of Przewodów to be an attack on the country. According to Andrzej Duda, the president of Poland, it was an accident.

“This was not an attack on Poland, we have no evidence that the missile was launched by Russia,” Duda said.

He also said that a S-300-type missile fell on the territory of Poland, and that it was probably a missile used by Ukrainian forces.

On the afternoon of November 18, Ukrainian experts were admitted to the scene of the explosion. This was announced by Dmytro Kuleba, Ukrainian Foreign Minister.

On November 20, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that the data collected by the investigation into the explosion of a rocket in the Polish village of Przewodów does not yet allow to establish exactly where it was released from.

He added that the investigation has “evidence from the CCTV of border guards, but it does not show with 100% certainty where the missile was fired from.”

“We don’t know that yet. Let experts, investigators work on this. We invited experts from the Ukrainian side, as well as international experts from NATO, and American experts to investigate,” Morawiecki said.

The Polish Prime Minister assured that Warsaw seeks full transparency in the investigation.

“We especially want our Ukrainian friends and partners to be sure that the outcome of the investigation will be proven. So we invited them to investigate,” he said.