Romanian parliament approves sending Patriot missile system to Ukraine

Source: Reuters

On Tuesday, the lower house of Romania’s parliament has approved a bill to provide Ukraine with a Patriot air defense system, which is set to help Kyiv bolster its defensive. After the bill received the backing of the Senate, it needs to be signed the country’s president Klaus Iohannis.

Once it is signed, the Romanian government will issue a decree to transfer one of its two operational Patriot batteries to Ukraine. This transfer is contingent upon a commitment from Romania’s allies to supply a replacement Patriot system, ensuring that Romania’s own defense posture remains intact.

Bucharest originally signed a $4 billion contract in 2017 to acquire Patriot systems and has since received four batteries, two of which are currently in active service. This move underscores Romania’s support for Ukraine in its ongoing conflict and highlights the country’s strategic role within NATO’s defense framework in Eastern Europe.

In my previous column, I wrote about social innovations in Ukraine. Those innovations are part of civic resilience and the democratization of security, which Europe is paying close attention to right now. The EU is trying to work out how to spread responsibility for its own security across society as a whole, rather than leaving it to institutions alone. It is looking for concrete ways to bring ordinary people into the work of defense and resistance.

Petro Poroshenko’s lawyers have appealed to the High Anti-Corruption Court demanding that NABU be obligated to register proceedings regarding the fact of exerting influence on the court and to recognize Petro Poroshenko as a victim in the case of the Deputy Head of the Office of the President, Iryna Mudra, due to her pressure on Supreme Court judges who were considering a lawsuit to overturn sanctions.

Internationally recognized brands and financial institutions should direct capital to Ukraine now, not waiting for the hostilities to end. This was emphasized by Rinat Akhmetov, president of FC Shakhtar, during a working visit to UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, where he met with UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin.

In recent days, Moscow’s official rhetoric has been dominated by hysteria over the decision of…

In 2025, the deadliest year yet for civilians, Ukraine’s three largest charitable foundations raised a record 105.9 billion hryvnias. It is more than the years 2022–2024 combined. According to the UN, humanitarian aid in Ukraine was delivered by more than 450 organisations, reaching five million people over the course of the year. Civic foundations hold licences to purchase lethal weapons, which is a function states have monopolised for centuries. These record sums were underwritten by international government grants, which means foreign states now channel billions directly through Ukrainian civic funds, bypassing inter-state channels. It is hard to imagine a stronger institutional trust in civil society.