War in Ukraine. Turkish authorities have refused to hand over S-400 missile systems to Ukraine

This was the minister’s response to a question about Turkey’s relationship with the United States, the BBC reported on Sunday. Moscow and Ankara signed a $2.5 billion deal to supply S-400 missile systems in 2017. They arrived in Turkey in the summer of 2019.

Questions were raised earlier about the possibility of Turkey replacing the S-400 system to defend Ukraine against a Russian military invasion, in March 2022, a month after Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Then the President of Turkey spoke about this matter. He declared that his country’s position was “unchanged” and that the substance was “absent”.

– Our position on the transfer of S-400 to Ukraine remains unchanged. This material does not exist because it is part of our security system,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying at the time by Turkish newspaper Haberturk.

Turkey is the first NATO country to purchase S-400 missiles from Russia. Their delivery to Turkey started in July 2019.

The U.S. sought to block the delivery of S-400 systems to Turkey in 2017, and Ankara was excluded from the latest F-35 fighter jet production and delivery program due to an agreement with Moscow. Parliamentary and presidential elections will be held in Turkey on May 14. The only significant challenger to nine-year-old Recep Tayyip Erdogan is Republican Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

The S-400 Triumf (NATO code – SA-21 Growler) is a modified version of the S-300PMU system (NATO code – SA-10C). According to Russian sources, the S-400 can destroy aircraft and cruise missiles at a distance of 400 kilometers, as well as ballistic targets at a distance of 60 kilometers – at a speed of 4.8 kilometers per hour.