Kuleba reveals "diplomatic secret": not only the Netherlands is ready to buy Patriot system for Ukraine
At the EU leaders' summit, Mark Rutte said that Amsterdam could buy Patriot systems from countries where they are available and transfer them to Ukraine
The Netherlands is not the only country that is ready to buy a Patriot battery from any country in the world for Ukraine right now, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.
"I will reveal a small diplomatic secret: The Netherlands is not the only country that is ready to buy a Patriot battery from any country in the world right now at a price that this country will name. The fact that the Netherlands has publicly made this signal is an extremely important moment," Kuleba said during a telethon on Thursday, Interfax-Ukraine reports.
According to the minister, it is also positive that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that there is no need to "hide behind the need to comply with NATO standards" when making decisions on the transfer of air defence systems to Ukraine.
"In fact, when some NATO countries tell us that they cannot transfer a battery because they will not meet the NATO standard for the number of available batteries, and the Secretary General tells them, do not hide behind this, but give what Ukraine needs, because this is the main thing now," Kuleba said.
He stressed that "there is a huge amount of diplomacy going on now".
The foreign minister also noted that on the sidelines behind closed doors at the meetings of the G7 foreign ministers "we had a very frank conversation".
"I can say that everyone is absolutely focused on making decisions. There is no need to look for batteries anymore, everyone knows where these batteries (Patriot systems – ed.) are. Everything that Ukraine said earlier has been confirmed. There are even more batteries than 100. We have a concrete understanding of which countries can quickly deliver the batteries. Therefore, today we have taken a step towards making important decisions. The German example is certainly an additional incentive," Kuleba said.
Earlier, the Financial Times wrote that Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said at the EU leaders' summit in Brussels that Amsterdam could purchase Patriot air defence systems from countries that have them and transfer them to Ukraine.
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