Romanian government approves draft law on transfer of Patriot air defence system to Ukraine

At a meeting on 2 September, the Romanian government approved a bill on the free transfer of a Patriot anti-aircraft missile system to Ukraine. The executive body's legislative proposal will be sent to parliament for urgent adoption.

"The executive branch has approved and will send to parliament, as an urgent matter, a draft law supplementing Law 222/2017 on the ground-based air defence. In particular, the draft law stipulates that the Patriot air defence missile system is subject to acts of donation to third parties.

After the law is passed by the parliament, the government will be able to make a decision that makes the Gift Act operational. The entire executive branch is authorised to restore the country's air defence capabilities at the expense of the budget allocated to the Ministry of National Defence,"  government spokesman Mihai Constantin stated, as quoted by Digi24.

The Ministry of National Defence has indicated that it will deliver one of the seven Patriot systems purchased from the US. Four of them have already arrived in Romania (two are now operational). The remaining three will arrive in Romania in the near future.

The transfer will be carried out by amending Law 222 of 2017, under which Romania purchased seven Patriot systems from the United States for almost US$4 billion.

Romania decided to transfer its Patriot system to Ukraine back in June. Last week, the Romanian Ministry of Defence submitted a draft law on the transfer to the parliament for further review.

Kyiv's NATO allies offered seven air defence systems in total, but Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that some of the promised Patriot systems have not been delivered.