KYIV, Ukraine, July 5, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Germany said Friday that the latest Patriot air defence system it supplied to Kyiv is now in Ukraine, as it struggles to hold off a blistering Russian strike campaign.

"The third Patriot air defence system from Germany has already arrived in Ukraine," Martin Jaeger, German Ambassador to Ukraine, wrote on X, after Berlin announced in April it would supply the system to Kyiv.

Ukraine has been urgently calling on its Western backers to send more air defences, with emphasis on the US-designed Patriot systems that are capable of shooting down Russian hypersonic missiles.

More than two years into the Russian invasion, missile barrages and drone attacks have crippled Ukraine's electricity generation capacity and forced Kyiv to impose scheduled power outages and import supplies from the European Union.

The arrival of the system follows pledges from Germany in April to send the additional Patriot battery.

The announcement comes as Kyiv's weakened and outgunned forces are struggling to hold back invading Russian troops, with Moscow regularly claiming the capture of new villages in eastern Ukraine.

After the outbreak of the Ukraine war in 2022, Germany dropped a traditionally pacifist stance and has become Ukraine's second-biggest supplier of military aid, after Washington.

As well as Patriots, Berlin has supplied a wide array of other armaments, ranging from artillery to armoured fighting vehicles.

Despite Germany delivering billions of euros of military supplies to Ukraine, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has come under fire in recent months for refusing to allow the supply of long-range Taurus missiles.

Germany fears the missiles could be used to hit targets deep within Russia.