BERLIN: Germany has offered Polland to re-deploy Patriot air defence systems at the beginning of the new year, the German defence ministry said on Thursday.
According to the statement, the units could be deployed to Germany’s NATO ally for up to six months. “With this, we will protect a logistical hub in Poland which is of central importance for the delivery of materials to Ukraine,” German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said.
Polish Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz in a post on X welcomed the decision of Germany.
Germany deployed 300 troops along with three Patriot units to Poland from January to November 2022.
They were installed in the town of Zamosc, about 50 km away from the Ukrainian border, to protect the southern town and its crucial railway link to Ukraine.
Earlier, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the Russia-Ukraine conflict is likely to escalate into a global war.
Addressing the Polish Teachers’ Union, he said that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine “is entering a decisive phase.” “We all know it; we feel that the unknown is approaching. None of us knows the end of this conflict, but we know that it is taking on very dramatic dimensions at the moment,” he warned.
Russia has warned that a new US military base in Poland could be a target for potential “destruction” with a “wide range of advanced weapons”.
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US President Joe Biden recently allowed Ukraine to fire US-made long-range missiles into Russian territory.
NATO spokesperson Farah Dakhlallah has warned that Russia’s use of the missile in Ukraine would “neither change the course of the conflict nor deter” the US-led defence alliance from backing Kyiv.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has already warned that the Kremlin has the right to strike countries supplying Ukraine with weapons used to hit targets inside Russia.
