The United States and Japan will soon agree on the supply of missiles for Patriot systems in a way to avoid Japan's "friction" with Russia.
This was reported by Oleg Katkov, editor-in-chief of the Ukrainian portal Defense Express, on the air of Apostrophe TV.
Katkov is confident that in the coming days America and Japan will reach an agreement that will allow the US to replenish its own arsenal of air defence systems in order to become more flexible in supplying additional systems and the missiles to Ukraine.
"[We need to] understand that our country is the main operator of Patriot systems in the world at the moment. Before the Kremlin's overt invasion of Ukraine, all over the world Patriot air defence systems fired a few missiles a year, while here we need to launch daily," he explains.
The interlocutor noted that the production capacity cannot keep up with the demand, and there are indeed a lot of missiles needed, taking into account that Ukrainian systems are also being adapted to missiles for Patriot.
"The mechanism is the following: to avoid political friction with the Kremlin, Japan is transferring missiles to the United States, and the Pentagon, in turn, is sending them to Ukraine. This is exactly the same scheme that was used to supply arms to Ukraine from South Korea," the editor-in-chief of the Ukrainian portal Defense Express summarised.
Earlier we wrote that Norway will transfer to Ukraine additional NASAMS air defense systems and other equipment worth $1.8 billion by the end of 2024.