EU Withholds Approval for Ukraine to Buy US Patriot Systems with EU Funds

BRUSSELS, August 25. /TASS/. The European Commission (EC) has not yet authorized Kiev to use funds from the EU’s 90 bln euros military financing program, which mandates the priority procurement of weapons for combat operations against Russia from European defense firms, to purchase Patriot air defense systems from the United States, European Commission Spokesman Balazs Ujvari told a briefing. Asked by a Ukrainian journalist whether Kiev could use the final 6.1 bln euros tranche under this program allocated by the EC on August 24 for urgent purchases of Patriot missiles from the US, he said: "This is the first time under the 90 bln [euros] package that we are approving essentially anti-ballistic capabilities <…> but it’s <…> also about missiles, ammunitions, and radars. Regarding your question, we cannot comment on the details of product schedules, those are confidential, but what I can say is that in this round, there is no derogation. <…> It means that the respective military hardware is produced either in the EU or in Ukraine." According to Ujvari, "the first step is always the approval of the product schedules, followed by the disbursement." "What happened yesterday was that we approved seven product schedules in total. Before we can make the disbursement, you know the drill, we need to receive the contracts from Ukraine, that Ukraine has signed with the respective defense industry operators, analyze those contracts, and when we have approved them, we can make the disbursement," he explained. In total, Ukraine has already submitted arms procurement requests worth 22 bln euros to the European Commission, he noted. In all, the EC aims to provide Kiev with 28 bln euros this year solely for the purchase of weapons.