Ukraine Praises Arrival of New 'Dream' Weapons

• Ukraine announced it has received Patriot air defense systems from allies.
• The Patriot air defense system is designed to intercept incoming enemy missiles and rockets.
• An announcement from a senior defense official for Ukraine said Germany, the Netherlands and the United States had provided Ukraine with the Patriots.

Ukraine on Wednesday confirmed the arrival of Patriot surface-to-air missile defense systems from Western allies.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov wrote on Twitter that his country had received the powerful defense weapons, which he described as being like to a "dream." Oleksandr Pavliuk, Ukraine's first deputy minister of defense, later added in a Telegram message that the systems were provided by the United States, Germany and the Netherlands.

On Tuesday, Germany was the first to announce it had delivered a Patriot system and missiles to Ukraine. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz first promised in January to provide Ukraine with a full battery of Patriots. (A battery typically consists of four to eight units with four rockets each.) The Netherlands and the United States had also pledged months ago to send Patriot systems to Ukraine, and Pentagon spokesperson Patrick Ryder said in March that 65 Ukrainian soldiers who had traveled to Oklahoma to learn how to use the systems had completed their training.

"Do you know how to visualize a dream? We must tell about it to the world and give it life! This is exactly what happened with the Patriots, even before the large-scale war, even before my appointment to the most important position of my life at the most," Reznikov tweeted with an image that showed multiple Patriot systems.

"Today, our beautiful Ukrainian sky becomes more secure because Patriot air defense systems have arrived in Ukraine. Our air defenders have mastered them as fast as they could. And our partners have kept their word."

Reznikov also thanked the United States, Germany and the Netherlands in his post while tagging defense officials from all three nations.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky first asked his Western allies for high-tech air defense in the early days of the invasion that Russian President Vladimir Putin launched on February 24, 2022, and the MIM-104 Patriot is considered to be among the most sophisticated air defense systems used by the United States and NATO allies.

As a surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, the Patriot is designed to intercept incoming missiles and rockets. A Patriot battery typically includes a phased array radar, an engagement control station, computers, power-generating equipment and up to eight launchers that can each hold four missiles.

Guy McCardle, managing editor of Special Operations Forces Report (SOFREP), told Newsweek that the Patriot is "quite an advanced and expensive air defense system."

"The key advantage it will give Ukraine is in its long-distance capabilities to knock down cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and aircraft," McCardle said. "It's the long-range aspect to a 'layered approach' to air defense. If something gets by Patriot, other closer systems will try to knock it down."

The SOFREP editor noted that breaking down the costs of launching, reloading, etc., finds it costs "about $4 million bucks a missile" to use a Patriot. He said Ukrainians will see it's "not a good return on investment" to use Patriots for intercepting $50,000 Iranian-made drones and will used more for expensive Kalibr cruise missiles.

The Kyiv Post reported that the arrival of the Patriots to Ukraine comes after a recent leak of allegedly classified U.S. Defense Department documents warned that Ukraine could run out of much of its air defense missiles by as earlier as May. The documents also reportedly said Russia could look to exploit Ukraine's vulnerable air defenses by trying to establish air superiority.

Newsweek has not been able to independently authenticate information contained in the leaked documents, and government officials from multiple countries have said some of the leaked papers might have been altered.

Newsweek reached out to the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs via email for comment.