UKRAINE, Sep 3 — The upper house of the Romanian parliament, the Senate, on Monday, September 2, approved a government bill on transferring the Patriot anti-aircraft missile system to Ukraine, reports Digi24.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine has received Patriot air defense systems from the United States, Romania, Germany, and the Netherlands. Patriot systems can effectively shoot down various types of Russian missiles, including ballistic and cruise missiles. 

101 Romanian senators voted in favor of the government’s draft law on transferring the air defense system to Ukraine, 13 voted against it, and two abstained.

The President of the Senate Defense Committee, Nicoleta Pauliuc, expressed hope that the draft law will pass the Chamber of Deputies, the decision-making body, by the end of the week.

Pauliuc emphasized that the transfer of the Patriot air defense system “doesn’t mean that Romania will be left without protection” because Bucharest has seven other such systems. 

Two are already in operation, two have been commissioned, and three more will arrive soon.

On July 22, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that the German Patriot defense system had arrived in Ukraine.

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