EU cannot buy Patriot missiles for Kiev yet due to lack of contracts

BRUSSELS, September 19. /TASS/. The European Commission (EC) is currently unable to purchase missiles for Patriot air defense systems for Kiev because it has not yet received contracts from the Ukrainian side, an EC spokesperson told a briefing on Friday.

"Patriot [funding] was approved only last week, so we need to receive the contracts. As far as I know, we do not have them," the spokesperson said.

The EU approved funding for Patriot systems for Ukraine under the Ukraine Support Loan mechanism last week.