{"id":20630,"date":"2024-07-10T20:46:23","date_gmt":"2024-07-10T20:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=20630"},"modified":"2024-07-10T20:46:23","modified_gmt":"2024-07-10T20:46:23","slug":"biden-opens-nato-summit-by-announcing-new-air-defenses-for-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=20630","title":{"rendered":"Biden opens NATO summit by announcing new air defenses for Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"
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President Joe Biden<\/a>\u00a0on Tuesday announced plans to supply new air defenses to Ukraine in a speech opening the NATO summit \u2013 providing much-needed support for the country at a critical juncture in its defense against Russia\u2019s invasion.<\/p>\n

The US, Germany, and Romania will each provide a Patriot battery of their own, while the Netherlands will work with other countries to enable an additional Patriot battery, each country announced in a joint statement. Meanwhile, Italy would also provide a SAMP-T long-range air defense system.<\/p>\n

The statement said the air-defense systems \u201cwill help to protect Ukrainian cities, civilians, and soldiers, and we are coordinating with the Ukrainian government so that these systems can be utilized rapidly.\u201d<\/p>\n

During his speech on Tuesday, Biden vowed that \u201cthe United States will make sure that when we export critical air defense interceptors, Ukraine goes to the front of the line.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will get this assistance before anyone else gets it,\u201d Biden added.<\/p>\n

Israel also receives defensive interceptors from the United States, though the country relies far more on its Iron Dome to intercept drones and rockets. The US had\u00a0previously discussed<\/a>\u00a0sending Patriot interceptors in Israel to Ukraine.<\/p>\n

In addition to the long-range aerial defense systems, the US and other countries are also providing Ukraine with \u201cdozens\u201d of short- and medium-range systems to help Kyiv intercept Russian drones and missiles. The systems including NASAMS, HAWKs, IRIS T-SLM, IRIS T-SLS, and Gepard systems. Canada, Norway, Spain, the UK and other countries will \u201cplay an integral role\u201d in providing the systems to Ukraine, while \u201cmany other supporters\u201d will provide the interceptor missiles, the statement said.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian President Volodymyr\u00a0Zelensky said he would fight for \u201cdecisive actions\u201d from\u00a0the United States\u00a0and Europe to help Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not only our country that needs it \u2013 everyone needs it, literally every partner, all nations,\u201d Zelensky said in his first remarks after arriving in the US. The Ukrainian president said he would ask for more air defense systems, F-16 fighter jets, and additional security guarantees, \u201cincluding weapons and finances, political support.\u201d<\/p>\n

One day before Biden\u2019s announcement, Russian strikes across Ukraine killed at least 22 people and injured 68 more, according to Ukrainian officials, including a strike on the country\u2019s largest children\u2019s hospital.<\/p>\n

On Monday evening, Biden called the strikes a \u201chorrific reminder of Russia\u2019s brutality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two-and-a-half years into the war with Russia, Zelensky has repeatedly asked allied nations to strengthen his country\u2019s air defenses to thwart Moscow\u2019s military prowess overhead.<\/p>\n

The United States has been a crucial ally to Ukraine since Russia\u2019s invasion in 2022 \u2013 but the future of that alliance has been thrown into question.<\/p>\n

Former President\u00a0Donald Trump<\/a>\u00a0has said he would pressure Ukraine into a peace deal with Russia that would see Kyiv cede territory in the process if he wins the presidency. Earlier this year, Trump said he would allow Russia to do \u201cwhatever the hell they want\u201d with countries that don\u2019t meet NATO defense-funding obligations.<\/p>\n

Support for Ukraine was also a prime topic at this year\u2019s G7 summit in Italy, where Biden and Zelensky signed an agreement that commits the US for 10 years to continued training of Ukraine\u2019s armed forces, more cooperation in the production of weapons and military equipment, the continued provision of military assistance and greater intelligence sharing.<\/p>\n

But that agreement could be undone under a different administration.<\/p>\n

Biden spoke Tuesday from the Mellon Auditorium, where the North Atlantic Treaty was signed in 1949 \u2013 creating the alliance \u2013 and where former President Bill Clinton held the alliance\u2019s 50th\u00a0anniversary summit.<\/p>\n

Given the backdrop, Biden leaned into the history of the alliance and the trajectory of the threats it has faced \u2013 and argued that, under his leadership, NATO has become stronger than ever.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll we allies knew before this war Putin thought NATO would break,\u201d Biden said. \u201cToday, NATO is stronger than its ever been in its history.\u201d<\/p>\n

He concluded his speech by presenting\u00a0NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.<\/a><\/p>\n

Biden\u2019s remarks were scripted and read from a teleprompter, but\u00a0the stakes were high<\/a>\u00a0for the president as many members of his own party and the public writ large are watching him closely following his poor debate performance late last month. Some members of his own party have recently said\u00a0they want more evidence of his mental and physical fitness before deciding whether to back him for four more years.<\/p>\n

Biden largely got through his speech without any major hiccups, though he did appear to accidentally read stage instructions from his prepared remarks while presenting the medal to Stoltenberg.<\/p>\n

Though foreign diplomats were horrified by Biden\u2019s debate performance, the president has several more chances to prove himself this week \u2013 including during a solo press conference on Thursday.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0 President Joe Biden\u00a0on Tuesday announced plans to supply new air defenses to Ukraine in a speech opening the NATO summit \u2013 providing much-needed support for the country at a… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}