US Military's Iron Dome Missile Defence System May Be Deployed in Ukraine

The US House Armed Services Committee's 2022 defence bill proposal stipulates allocating $275 million for security assistance to Ukraine.

The American military's Iron Dome missile defence system may be deployed to Ukraine as part of the 2022 US Defence Bill, Politico has reported.

Between late 2020 and early 2021, Israel sold two Iron Dome batteries to the US under a 2019 bilateral agreement initiated by the US Congress. Since then, the US Army has been working to integrate the Iron Dome into its air defence system.

Built by the Israeli defence company Rafael in partnership with the US manufacturing giant Raytheon, Iron Dome is touted by Tel Aviv as a highly effective missile shield that has allegedly knocked down about 90 percent of missiles fired into the Jewish State over the past few years.

Politico, meanwhile, recalled that the Biden administration had "kept up" shipments of weapons to the Ukrainian military since the 46th president assumed office in January.

"But some in Congress are looking to do more and have included an amendment attached to the 2022 defense bill that would pressure the Biden administration to sell or transfer new air and missile defense systems to Ukraine, including potentially sending an Iron Dome battery currently being operated by the US Army", according to the news outlet.

In June, US House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith released a summary of his 2022 Defence Bill proposal, which includes $275 million for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), something that in turn envisages providing support and assistance to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Russia Warns Against US Defence Air System in Ukraine

Politico's report comes after Ukrainian Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Oleksii Reznikov proposed last month to deploy US air defence systems in Ukraine and said that Kiev is worried about the alleged intentions of Russia to transfer nuclear weapons to Crimea.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova responded by describing the proposal as "proof of the provocative policy of Ukraine and in the region towards Russia", adding that the Ukrainian people "do not need this".

She was echoed by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who warned that the US plans to provide military assistance to Kiev may result in unpredictable actions by Ukraine, such as attempts to resolve the crisis in the southeast of the country by force.

The conflict between Kiev and the self-declared republics of Donetsk and Lugansk (DPR and LPR, respectively) in eastern Ukraine has been going on since 2014, when Kiev launched a military operation in the Donbass region after it refused to recognise a new Ukrainian government at the time.

The Minsk peace agreements, designed to find a political solution to the conflict, were negotiated by the heads of France, Germany, Russia, and Ukraine — that make up the Normandy group — in February 2015. Both sides to the conflict have repeatedly broken the agreements, blaming each other for the violations

Moscow has consistently underscored that it is not a side in Ukraine's domestic conflict and is interested in its early settlement.