Ukraine on April 19 said that it has received its first Patriot air-defense systems as Russia launched a fresh wave of drone attacks on the southern port city of Odesa and Ukrainian defenders repelled more attacks in the eastern region of Donetsk, where a protracted battle for the city of Bakhmut has been under way for months.
“Today, our beautiful Ukrainian skies have become more secure because Patriot air-defense systems have arrived in Ukraine,” Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov wrote on Twitter.
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Reznikov wrote that the Ukrainian air-defense forces have trained to master the complexities of the Patriot systems “as quickly as they could” and thanked the United States, Germany, and the Netherlands for having “kept their word” on delivering the system.
“We will win together,” Reznikov said, without specifying which country the systems had come from.
However, Germany on April 18 listed the Patriot system on a government website that records Berlin’s deliveries of military equipment to Ukraine.
The mobile surface-to-air Patriot system is one of the most advanced in the world and can be used against aircraft, ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles.
The United States and Germany pledged Patriot systems to Ukraine following waves of Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure that began in October.
The Netherlands promised Kyiv parts of a Patriot system, including two launchers and missiles.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Patriot will “significantly” beef up Ukraine’s air defense.
An additional $325 million in U.S. military aid announced on April 19 also will help. The package will send rockets for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) that the Pentagon says Ukraine has used effectively on the battlefield, as well as an array of other missiles, small-arms ammunition, and antitank ammunition.
The supplies will be pulled from Pentagon inventories, meaning they can go quickly to the front line as Ukraine prepares to launch a counteroffensive against Russian forces.
Counteroffensive actions by Ukrainian troops are already taking place in eastern Ukraine, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said. The dates of counteroffensive actions will not be announced, Malyar said, but certain actions already are under way in areas around Lyman, Avdiyivka, and Maryinka.
The announcement of the arrival of Patriot systems came after Russia attacked the southern port city of Odesa with Iranian-made drones overnight.
“This time, 10 out of 12 Shahed kamikaze drones were destroyed by the members of the Odesa antiaircraft missile brigade of the Southern Air Command,” the military said in a statement.
Yuriy Kruk, the head of the military administration in the Odesa region, said a public infrastructure target was hit during the drone attack, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
In the east, Ukrainian defenders repelled more than 60 attacks as Russian troops continue their assault on Bakhmut, Avdiyivka, and Maryinka, Ukraine’s General Staff said in its daily report on April 19.
The fiercest battles are fought for Bakhmut and Maryinka, which remain the epicenter of hostilities, the military said.
As Russia Increases Shelling and Air Strikes On Bakhmut, Ukraine Retaliates With Its Own
As Moscow’s forces increase their use of heavy artillery and air strikes in the devastated eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, Kyiv’s outnumbered and outgunned soldiers are countering with their own big guns.
The months of fighting for Bakhmut in particular has turned into one of the bloodiest battles of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with both sides reportedly suffering heavy casualties.
The Ukrainian military said April 19 that it had taken delivery of France’s light AMX-10 RC armored fighting vehicles, which were “already in service.”
Ahead of a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which consists of dozens of countries that provide military aid to Kyiv, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called for more arms and ammunition to be sent to Ukraine.
“We recognize the enormous amount of weapons, ammunitions, supplies that have already been provided to Ukraine, but we need to do even more,” Stoltenberg told CNN on April 18.
“Because we need to ensure that Ukrainians are in a position where they can punch through the Russian lines and also across minefields and be in a position where they can liberate, take back territory,” he said.
The Contact Group is due to meet again on April 21 at the U.S. air base in Rammstein, Germany.
