BERLIN Germany has offered to Poland extending the deployment of three Patriot air defence units until the end of 2023, the defence ministry in Berlin said on Tuesday.

"An extension beyond the end of 2023 is not foreseen," the ministry said in a statement.

Together with three Patriot air defence units, some 300 German soldiers have been based in the Polish town of Zamosc, about 50 km (31 miles) from the Ukrainian border, since the start of the year to protect the southern town and its crucial railway link to Ukraine.

(Reporting by Sabine Siebold and Christoph Steitz; Editing by Chris Reese)