Polish President Andrzej Duda said Monday that a group of Polish and German experts will meet these days to determine where the Patriot anti-missile system will be deployed, days after Warsaw accepted «with disappointment» Berlin’s decision to place these air defenses on its territory and not on Ukraine’s western border.
This was announced at a joint press conference with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier during his visit to Berlin, who took the opportunity to thank his German partners for the delivery of this system with which they will be able to «protect» Poland, especially after a Ukrainian missile fell a month ago on Polish territory and killed two people.
«For us in Poland, this is a very important gesture on the part of an ally and neighbor. Thank you because these missiles will protect the Polish sky and Polish soil,» he was quoted as saying by the German agency DPA.
Duda said that the missile that fell in the border region of Prezwodow «caused a lot of fear in Polish society», so this new deployment «is of great importance to reinforce security», reports the PAP agency.
While a few days ago, the Polish Defense Minister, Mariusz Blaszczak, acknowledged that they had been «disappointed» by Germany’s decision not to place this anti-missile system in Ukraine, Duda has now valued the important step of its being on NATO soil.
For his part, President Steinmeier stressed that strengthening NATO’s eastern flank is part of Germany’s security policy and expressed his gratitude that Warsaw and Berlin were able to reach an agreement after several months of political wrangling.
