BRUSSELS, September 19. /TASS/. The European Commission (EC) is currently unable to purchase missiles for Patriot air defense systems for Kiev because it has not yet received contracts from the Ukrainian side, an EC spokesperson told a briefing on Friday.

"Patriot [funding] was approved only last week, so we need to receive the contracts. As far as I know, we do not have them," the spokesperson said.

The EU approved funding for Patriot systems for Ukraine under the Ukraine Support Loan mechanism last week.

Air defenses down 344 Ukrainian drones over Russia overnight — top brass

On-duty air defenses intercepted and destroyed 344 Ukrainian fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles over the past night over the Leningrad, Novgorod, Bryansk, Kursk, Belgorod, Oryol, Kaluga, Tula, Ryazan, Lipetsk, Vladimir, Rostov, Krasnodar, Moscow Regions, the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District, the Republic of Dagestan and over the Black Sea

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