Lloyd Austin, US Secretary of Defense, is in Bratislava, Slovakia, and held a press conference with his Slovak counterpart, Secretary of Defense Yaroslav Nad.
Another journalist asked about the possibility of supplying Ukraine with the S-300, a Soviet-designed long-range anti-aircraft missile system.
Austin said: “The success for the Ukrainian forces was that they were really able to prevent Russia from establishing air supremacy, and they did this through the effective use of air defense systems, both medium and short range.”
Ordinary observers are probably somewhat surprised to hear from him that Russia has not established air supremacy when it relentlessly bombards Ukraine from the air. Zelenskiy also clearly believes that NATO does indeed have more options than it can handle. And, as we wrote, more weapons are being discussed.
However, Austin continued: “So our goal was to continue to strengthen what worked for the Ukrainian forces. Therefore, we are talking with a number of our allies and partners in order to get as many opportunities as possible to continue to provide assistance.”
Austin is being asked about the long-range missile systems Russia is using to attack Ukraine and what he is discussing with allies about alternatives to the S-300 system to help Ukraine “in the long-range arena.”
Austin said: “The systems that the Russians use… they use a lot of missiles, rockets and artillery. There are a number of things that can be used to counteract this. We see that the drones have been very effective, we have also seen that the ability to return fire with missiles and artillery is also very effective, so I think we will increasingly see how Ukrainian forces will turn to these methods to counter this. ”
“The missiles, or even the cruise missiles you mentioned, are launched from airborne platforms, I think you know they were actually launched from Russian territory, so a no-fly zone would not interfere with this activity.”
Nad said that the supply of S-300 systems is being discussed, and there is readiness as long as it is possible to ensure the security of NATO and the territories of individual members by replacing the systems transferred to Ukraine.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin (left) and Slovakian Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad (right) give a joint press conference on their meeting in Bratislava a few minutes ago. Photo: Jakub Gawlak/EPA