Greece and Spain under pressure to provide Ukraine with air defense systems, FT reports

Greece and Spain are under significant pressure from their EU and NATO allies to provide air defense systems to Ukraine, according to a report in the Financial Times.

European leaders personally urged Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his Spanish counterpart Pedro Sanchez during a summit in Brussels last week to supply the systems to Ukraine, the report said citing sources briefed on the discussions.

The two leaders, whose armed forces collectively possess over a dozen Patriot systems along with other assets like S-300s, were allegedly told that their own needs were not as pressing as Ukraine’s and that they were not currently facing imminent threats.

In a post on social media platform X on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, “‘Patriots’ can only be called air defense systems if they work and save lives rather than standing immobile somewhere in storage bases.”