EU Defense Ministers Split on Sending Patriot Missiles to Ukraine

The split is less about willingness than about capacity: Patriot batteries are scarce, nationally owned, and tied to each member state's own air-defense obligations, so the debate exposes how little genuinely pooled stock exists. That matters beyond Ukraine, because it tests whether the EU can act as a defense supplier rather than a coordinator of national donations. The open question is whether the language of collective support survives contact with the reality that the decision remains with individual capitals.