United to win: Lithuania joins coalition to bolster Ukrainian air defense

Lithuania joined the coalition to strengthen Ukrainian air defense, led by Germany, France, and the USA.

The country's president, Gitanas Nauseda, announced this.

The Lithuanian leader also said that Vilnius will provide Ukraine with mobile air surveillance radars within the framework of this coalition.

"Military support for Ukraine is crucial. Ukraine needs weapons, not promises," Nauseda emphasized.

It should be noted that on May 29, the Lithuanian government allocated 13.5 million euros for the purchase of air surveillance radars, which will be handed over to the coalition for the search of air defense means of Ukraine, led by Germany.

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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.