US finalising arms upgrade to Ukraine with Patriot missiles

Bloomberg

The US is poised to send Patriot air and missile defense batteries to Ukraine pending final approval from President Joe Biden, two US officials said, fulfilling a key demand from Ukrainian leaders.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has urgently sought the system, produced by Raytheon Technologies Corp.and Lockheed Martin Corp, saying Patriots are needed to counter the relentless barrage of Russian missiles that have targeted Ukraine’s military as well as civilian and energy infrastructure.
The decision to send the Patriot system may come within days, one of the officials said, but still requires a final sign-off by Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
The tentative decision was reported earlier by CNN. Asked for comment, a State Department spokesman said Biden has been clear that the US will prioritise sending air defense systems to Ukraine to help it defend against Russian aggression.
Brigadier General Pat Ryder, the Pentagon spokesman, said that he had nothing to announce but the US would
keep up a “robust dialog” on Ukraine’s battlefield needs. Ryder said the US had no plans to provide Patriot batteries to Ukraine.
Zelenskiy has kept up the pressure for more air defenses to fend off Russian attacks. The US is also supplying Ukraine with millions of dollars of equipment to replace generators and other energy equipment targeted by Russia, and wants to be able to make sure that gear doesn’t get blown up again.
A European diplomat, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations, said sending Patriots would be a welcome move but added that Ukraine still needs tanks and longer-range rocket systems for major counteroffensives.
It’s unclear how quickly the US will be able to get Patriots into Ukraine if approval comes through. The systems could be there soon if the US sends systems from its own stocks in Europe or the US, rather than contracting for new ones. But Patriots also require large crews with extensive training, a process that could take months.
“It all depends on how many Patriots they are ready to send,” said Yevgeny Buzhinsky, a retired Russian general and Moscow-based defense analyst.
“If they talk about several complexes, this won’t change anything. A dozen could protect a few objects. And there are thousands of them.”

Russian drone strikes target Kyiv

Bloomberg

Russia launched a drone strike on Kyiv on Wednesday, the first such attack in weeks, inflicting damage on some buildings but no reported casualties, the Ukrainian capital’s military administration said.
While the attack on Kyiv and other cities inflicted little damage on the energy system, the country is suffering a significant power shortage from a barrage of earlier strikes, according to the national grid operator. The most dire situation is in the country’s east, where constant Russian shelling is destroying infrastructure and slowing repairs, operator NPC Ukrenergo said.
The attacks over the past few months against energy infrastructure, combined with record autumn rainfall, have also hit farmers, leaving a third of Ukraine’s corn crop in fields as winter sets in.
Russian shells damaged the building of the Kherson regional state administration in the southern city centre on Wednesday, the deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s administration, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said.