Three hundred Dutch soldiers will go to Poland for six months from December to defend a NATO site with Patriot-Affordweer systems. It is a logistics center of NATO where training of Ukrainian soldiers and the provision of military support from allies to the country is facilitated and coordinated. The Dutch Ministry of Defense announced this on Wednesday.
According to Minister of Defense Ruben Brekelmans (VVD), this plan contributes to three goals, he says on the site Van Defense: “Defending the NATO territory, discourage Russian aggression and providing support to Ukraine. This is how we keep the Russian threat as far as possible.”
The NATO air defense in Poland has been there for some time. Various Member States are involved. In addition to Patriots, the Dutch army also supplies a Nasams anti-aircraft system and anti-drone systems.
No ‘boots on the ground’
Brekelmans believes that he offers ‘layered air defense’ against threats, he says in an interview with the Algemeen Dagblad (AD). “For the most advanced attacks with ballistic rockets, we have the patriots, the nasams are there for goals at some shorter distances and if a drone comes to us, we can remove them from the sky with an anti-drone system.”
Where Germany, Norway and Poland took them together earlier, the Netherlands will now do this on its own at the request of NATO, the AD writes. Brekelmans emphasizes that this mission is not Boots on the ground In Ukraine, and that the immune systems will not defend Ukrainian airspace.
It is the second time since the Russian invasion of Ukraine that Dutch parts of Patriots go to the east flank of the NATO area. Shortly after the Russian raid, a Patriot battery with around 150 soldiers went to Slovakia.
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