Boris Pistorius, the Minister of Defense of Germany, arrived in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa on May 30th with an unannounced visit. There, he announced a new military aid package of an estimated worth EUR 500 million to support Ukraine's capability to defend itself against russian air attacks with cruise missiles and Shahed drones.
"We will continue to support you in this defensive campaign," Pistorius said at a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Defense Minister Rustem Umierov, as quoted by Deutsche Welle.
Read more: Netherlands Offers Multiple Countries to Assemble a Patriot for Ukraine Piece by Piece
Following the meeting, Ukraine's minister Umierov revealed the contents of this military assistance package: "Missiles for IRIS-T air defense systems, artillery systems, spare parts for Leopard tanks, unmanned aerial systems, and sniper rifles," he noted on his X social page.
Tagesschau further details, citing Pistorius, that Kyiv will get "a large number" of IRIS-T missiles of the medium-range type (up to 40 km), and a smaller number of the short-range ones (12 km) for the IRIS-T SLS — Surface-Launched Short-range — system.
During the meeting, the two ministers visited a training ground where the troops of the Ukrainian Armed Forces are training, and inspected "defense structures that protect strategically important objects in the Odesa region." On a note from Defense Express, there were unofficial reports that one of the three IRIS-T SLM surface-to-air missile systems operating in the medium range. Ukrainian officials have never confirmed or refuted these assumptions.
Earlier Defense Express reported that, as the leader of the "Air Defense Coalition" in support of Ukraine, Germany had initiated a worldwide search for Patriot anti-missile systems — another air defense asset of vital importance to protect Ukraine from russian missile attacks, but a scarce one. As a solution to that, the other day, the Netherlands offered European countries to collectively assemble one complete Patriot fire unit for Ukraine, each country providing a piece of the system.
Read more: Luxembourg Contributes to Artillery Coalition: How Many Caesar Howitzers Ukraine to Receive
