News of the decision to provide the advanced system came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded yesterday for more air defences at the start of an intense week of diplomatic meetings with western partners.

Zelensky has recently called for several additional Patriot systems, including two to defend the eastern Kharkiv region, where Russia has recently been pressing a new offensive.

“Russia’s greatest strategic advantage over Ukraine is superiority in the sky. It is missile and bomb terror that helps Russian troops advance on the ground,” Zelensky told a reconstruction conference in Berlin yesterday.

“Air defence is the answer,” he added.

The New York Times reported that the new Patriot system destined for Ukraine is currently being deployed in Poland, defending a rotating American force slated to return to the US.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment on the transfer.

The delivery would be at least the second Patriot system sent to Ukraine by Washington.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz, speaking at the same conference as Zelensky yesterday, urged allies to dig deeper in their arsenals to help “strengthen Ukraine’s air defence with everything that is possible”.

Germany has contributed three Patriot systems to Kyiv.