Volodymyr Zelensky during a visit to Washington appealed to U.S. President Donald Trump to promptly provide Kyiv with a “winter package” of interceptor missiles for Patriot air defense systems, he said in an interview with Axios.
The head of state explained that Ukraine seeks to secure at least 300 interceptor missiles by the start of winter, since existing stocks are almost exhausted, and without them it is impossible to effectively counter ballistic strikes, which recently has prevented repelling attacks on Kyiv.
“We needed Patriots yesterday,” said Volodymyr Zelensky.
He warned that if deliveries are delayed until winter, Russian shelling could destroy power-generating facilities, leaving millions of people without electricity and heat, causing a humanitarian crisis.
According to the president, even after obtaining the necessary licenses from the United States, scaling up mass production of interceptors will take from 1 to 5 years, and such a pace does not meet the urgent defense needs.
Volodymyr Zelensky also reported that Russia uses between 30 and 40 ballistic missiles in each large-scale strike and conducts from 3 to 5 such attacks per month.
In his conversation with Axios he emphasized that this is about emergency strengthening of air defense specifically for the winter period, when risks to the energy system are especially high.
Earlier we wrote:
- Zelensky convinced Washington that Kyiv can win the war
- New PAC-3 already on the way: Ukraine reached an agreement with the U.S. on a package for Patriot
- Russia is preparing a new mass strike: Zelensky urged Ukrainians not to ignore alerts
- Almost two days of terror: Russia fired 1,567 drones and 56 missiles at Ukraine
- Ukrainian air defense on a “starvation ration”: Ihnat reported a shortage of missiles for Patriot, NASAMS and IRIS-T
