Pentagon preparing to send Patriot missile system to Ukraine

The Pentagon is preparing to send the Patriot missile system to Ukraine, senior U.S. officials said Tuesday, a move that would provide the government in Kyiv with the most advanced air defense weapon in the American arsenal as Russia carries out an unrelenting assault on the country’s electrical grid.

The plan is not yet approved by President Biden or Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, but it could be soon, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to detail sensitive internal deliberations. It would fulfill one of Ukraine’s biggest and most frequent requests of Washington, and follows weeks of Russian bombardment that has plunged much of the country into cold and darkness as winter takes hold.