'Swap' With Patriot, Slovakia Has Delivered S-300 Hanud Systems To Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's request seems to have been granted, after asking for help in early March to send the S-300 air defense system, now the S-300 battery pack has actually been delivered to Ukraine. The S-300 batteries that were delivered came from Slovak assets, which were shipped by rail.

Quoted from aljazeera.com (8/4/2022), Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger said Slovakia had provided Ukraine with the S-300 air defense system to help it defend against Russian air attacks.

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In a Facebook post on Friday, Heger said the donation of Soviet-made S-300 hanud batteries did not mean that the European Union and NATO members had joined the conflict with Russia.

Like a "trade-off," the delivery of S-300 Slovaks to Ukraine was apparently due to assurances from the United States, with Slovak Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad saying that the United States would deploy Patriot air defense systems in his country next week. Nad previously said his country was willing to provide the S-300 to Ukraine on condition that it had a suitable replacement.

Not only that, Germany and the Netherlands have also agreed to send troops armed with Patriot missiles to Slovakia as part of a 2,100 force consisting of soldiers from several NATO member countries, including the US. The troops will form a combat unit in the territory of Slovakia to increase NATO defenses on the eastern side of Europe.

So far, there are three NATO members operating the S-300, namely Bulgaria, Slovakia and Greece. Slovakia operates a single battery S-300 hanud system, which it inherited after the breakup of Czechoslovakia in 1993.

Most Western countries are having difficulty supplying medium/long range hanud systems to Ukraine. This is because Ukrainian military personnel can only handle Soviet or Russian-made weapons.

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At the same time, NATO countries from Eastern Europe have a small number of Buk and S-300 air defense systems. Ukrainian military personnel are already trained in the operation of the S-300. Ukraine so far operates the S-300PT, S-300PS, S-300V types.

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