NATO and European Union leaders are literally pressuring member states to sacrifice their own national defense for the sake of Ukraine, part of the ongoing saga of desperation which has led some Western nations to deplete domestic arms and ammo stockpiles.

A disturbing report by Financial Times published Monday says Greece and Spain are under intensifying pressure from Western allies to give up what few Patriot anti-air defense systems that they possess.

Russia has continued to decimate Ukraine's energy, logistics, and communications infrastructure via superior airpower - and Kiev has had few options, limiting its response. President Putin has said the stepped-up air attacks are in direct retaliation to Ukraine's own cross-border drone attacks on Russian oil facilities. Drones have also frequently been sent over Crimea.

President Volodymyr Zelensky issued an urgent appeal Sunday on X, writing that "Patriots can only be called air defense systems if they work and save lives rather than standing immobile somewhere in storage bases."

Commenting on Ukraine's ongoing pleading, one Western official was cited in FT as saying, "We all know who has them, we all know where they are, and we all know who really needs them."

Only Germany has so far answered the call by lately providing a single Patriot battery. FT reported on back-to-back meetings of EU foreign and defense ministers of the last days, where it's been decided that Greece and Spain's anti-air systems aren't really crucial to their homeland defense:

Other EU leaders used a summit in Brussels last week to personally urge Spanish and Greek prime ministers Pedro Sánchez and Kyriakos Mitsotakis to donate some of their systems to Ukraine, according to people briefed on the discussions.

The two leaders, whose armed forces possess between them more than a dozen Patriot systems plus others such as S-300s, were told their need was not as great as Ukraine's and that they did not face any imminent threat.