Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov met with the Chairman of the Bundestag Committee on Defense Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann.

This was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

"I had a warm and friendly conversation with our partner from the Bundestag, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, head of the defense committee. I look forward to a productive discussion that will bring practical results, including commitments to strengthen Ukrainian air defense," said Reznikov .

German air defense for Ukraine: what is known

The transfer of the German air defense system to Ukraine became known on June 1, 2022, when German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced the corresponding assistance during his speech in the Bundestag.

Then the head of the German Foreign Ministry, Analena Berbock, said that the government would send the IRIS-T SLM within a month, but this did not happen.

Berbok explained the delay by the fact that the arms will be supplied by the manufacturing company Diehl directly to Ukraine, and not from the warehouses of the Bundeswehr.

Subsequently, on March 28, Burbok announced the delivery of IRIS-T air defense systems to Ukraine over the course of several weeks, but this did not happen again.

Instead, Mrs. Ambassador of Germany to Ukraine Anka Feldhusen said that Ukraine will probably receive the first system in October this year.

This is due to the fact that the IRIS-T air defense systems are produced specifically for Ukraine, and they are not in service with the German army. 

Already in October, it became known that Ukraine had just signed a contract for the supply of modern German systems.

The amount of the contract is more than 500 million euros. 

Thus, according to the Ambassador of Ukraine to Germany Andrii Melnyk, the first systems will reach Ukraine only at the beginning of 2023. 

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