The Patriot air defense missiles fired during the American bombardment of Iran could have protected Ukrainian cities from the Russian strikes that crippled the country's electricity system over recent months. Anne Applebaum laid out this cost on the To The Contrary With Charlie Sykes podcast.
As "Hvylya" reports, Applebaum framed the Iran campaign as a direct resource trade-off at Ukraine's expense.
"The quantity and number of just taking Patriot defense missiles, ammunition for Patriot air defense alone, the quantity that have been used in the last few days - this would have been enough to protect the Ukrainian cities from this devastating blow to the electricity system over the last couple of months," Applebaum said.
The choice, she argued, was explicit. "The United States has made a choice - we're not protecting Ukraine, we're not helping Ukraine survive the war, and instead we've decided to use the same capacity for this war of choice with an unclear outcome against Iran." Europeans and Ukrainians, she added, have taken notice.
The irony compounds. Washington launched a war against Iran partly justified by the threat of Iranian drones - the same weapons Ukraine has been intercepting for four years with less sophisticated systems. Meanwhile, the advanced American-made interceptors that could have saved Ukrainian lives were spent on a campaign with no clear endgame.
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