Warsaw, Aug. 10, (dpa/GNA) – Germany will keep Patroit air defence squadrons stationed in south-eastern Poland through the end of the year after both countries reached an agreement on extending the deployment.
Poland’s Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak confirmed the agreement with Germany in an interview on Polish public radio on Thursday.
By the end of the year, Poland will be ready to integrate its own Patriot systems into its air defence, Bła
The three German Patriot mission squadrons have been deployed in Zamość in south-eastern Poland not far from the border with Ukraine since January to protect the country’s airspace.
Germany and Poland, both members of the European Union, are NATO allies and close trading partners. But the two governments have complicated and at times strained relations, which hampered German offers to bolster Polish air defences.
Germany initially offered to send the Patriot crews to Poland after a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile went off course and killed two Poles in a rural area.
Originally, the German Patriot crews were to be stationed there for a maximum of six months. At a meeting with German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius in early July, Błaszczak asked that the deployment be extended.
GNA