The first parts of NATO’s Patriot air defense system began arriving in Slovakia on Sunday, the country’s defense minister Jaroslav Nad said. The US-made system started arriving in the Central European country—which shares a 100km-long (62-mile-long) border with Ukraine—from NATO partner countries and the deployment will continue in the coming days, according to the defense minister. “I can gladly confirm that the first units in charge of the deployment of the Patriot anti-air defense system are gradually coming to the territory of the Slovak Republic,” Nad said in a statement on social media. NATO’s Patriot air defense system will be operated by German and Dutch troops and will initially be deployed at the Sliac airport in central Slovakia to help reinforce the NATO’s defenses of its member amid Russia’s ongoing invasion in Ukraine. Nad thanked both Germany and the Netherlands for their “really responsible alliance decision to accept our request for fundamental strengthening of the …