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Germany pulls its Patriot air defense systems from Poland — DPA

Germany provided Poland with US-made Patriot missile defense systems earlier this year

BERLIN, November 8. /TASS/. The Bundeswehr will terminate the deployment of its Patriot missile defense systems in Poland on Friday and will also pull the soldiers that are servicing them, the DPA news service reported, citing the German Defense Ministry.

"Poland and Germany stand shoulder to shoulder in defending NATO's eastern flank. For me this is a very important sign of solidarity in the alliance as well as friendship and unity between our nations," DPA quoted German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius as saying.

Germany provided Poland with US-made Patriot missile defense systems earlier this year. They were originally expected to remain there for six months. On July 3, Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said that the Patriots would remain in Polish at least until the end of the year.

On November 15 of last year, a missile landed in the village of Przewodow in eastern Poland on the border with Ukraine, killing two people. Polish President Andrzej Duda said the country’s government determined that the munition belonged to Ukrainian air defense forces. Warsaw regarded the incident as an accident. The US State Department said that the US was fully confident in the accuracy of the Polish conclusions. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the missile had been fired from a Ukrainian S-300 air defense system.

Following the incident, the German Defense Ministry offered to provide Poland with Patriot batteries, gaining a positive response. In January, 12 Patriot launchers were reported to be deployed in Poland, along with several hundred German military personnel to maintain them.

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