Pistorius announced plans for Germany and Ukraine to jointly produce air defense

Germany and Ukraine have signed an agreement to jointly develop an air defense system to combat ballistic missiles. This was announced on June 18 by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius during a press conference following a meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine.

"We signed another very important agreement today. It creates a framework for the joint development of a new air defense system to counter these ballistic missiles," he said, the broadcast was posted on the NATO News YouTube channel.

Pistorius said that a number of German industrial enterprises are already discussing this issue.

There is no money, but you are holding on: Brussels postponed the transfer of €9.1 billion to Kiev

The European Commission referred to the "technical steps" not carried out by Ukraine

On June 17, Bloomberg reported that the American leader Donald Trump plans to appeal to the enterprises of the US defense industry with a request to launch the production of weapons under license in European countries and in Ukraine. In addition, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that the shortage of production can be filled by transferring licenses for production to companies from Europe and Ukraine with the necessary production capabilities.

Earlier in the day, Trump allowed Ukraine to transfer a license to produce missiles for the American Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems.

The New York Times reported on June 13 that the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are facing a shortage of interceptor missiles for Patriot air defense systems. According to experts, the insufficient pace of the transfer of demanded missiles to Kiev deprives the Armed Forces of Ukraine of the chance to create an integrated air defense system.