United to win: Lithuania pledges €13.5 mln for Ukraine's air surveillance radars
Ground Master 200 radar. Photo: from open sources
On May 29, the Lithuanian government approved the allocation of 13.5 million euros to purchase air surveillance radars. These will be provided to the German-led coalition in their search for air defense equipment for Ukraine.
According to LRT, the Minister of Defense of Lithuania, Laurynas Kasciunas, stated this.
As the head of the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense noted, these radars will strengthen Ukraine's warning system.
"Thus, we are joining the German-initiated air defense coalition. Germany has provided Ukraine with the third Patriot system and other systems, so we are making our possible contribution in return," Kasciunas said.
According to the Lithuanian minister, his country's goal this year is to send four radars to Ukraine.
"They will increase warning, visibility, and the ability to destroy air targets. This year, we will send four radars, and then we will continue to purchase radars because Ukraine needs them; they themselves identified this need," the head of the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense said.
At the end of April, Rubryka wrote that Lithuania is considering contributing to the German Air Defense Coalition by providing Ukraine with air surveillance radars.
For reference:
On April 17, the German government launched an initiative to find additional means of air defense that could be transferred to Ukraine. Berlin later reported that it was discussing financing the initiative with Denmark and the Netherlands.
Belgium also announced 200 million euros for the German initiative in April, and Canada pledged more than $55 million in May.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius also announced his intention to purchase three HIMARS rocket launchers from the United States and transfer them to Ukraine.
It is worth mentioning that at the 22nd meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group ("Ramstein format"), which took place earlier, a number of countries expressed their support for Germany's initiative to find air defense equipment for Kyiv.
In particular, the Netherlands plans to assemble the Patriot anti-aircraft missile complex quickly and transfer it to Ukraine. It also calls on other countries armed with such an air defense system to join.
On May 24, another German anti-aircraft complex, Iris-T-SLM, arrived. Thus, Ukraine currently has four medium-range Iris-T systems and one short-range Iris-T system.
