Scholz: German offer of air defense system to Poland remains

BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says his country’s offer to send Patriot anti-missile systems to Poland remains on the table despite Warsaw’s suggestion that they should go to Ukraine instead. Poland’s proposal has received a cool response from Berlin, where some are concerned that deploying Patriots to Ukraine could draw NATO into the conflict there. And defense experts say training for the highly sophisticated system could also take years, meaning it wouldn’t meet Ukraine’s immediate needs. After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, NATO deployed U.S. Patriot batteries to Poland, and German Patriot batteries to Slovakia, as well as a French equivalent system to Romania.