Ukraine Needs an Emergency “Winter Package” of Missiles for the Patriot System — Zelenskyy
29 July 13:33
Ukraine urgently needs a “winter package” of interceptor missiles for its Patriot air defense systems to protect its energy infrastructure from devastating Russian attacks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made this statement in an interview with Axios following his meeting with Donald Trump at the White House, according to "Komersant Ukrainian".
According to Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s stockpile of missiles for the Patriot systems is virtually depleted, leaving the country vulnerable to Russian ballistic missile strikes. If this problem is not resolved before the cold weather sets in, new strikes on power plants could leave millions of citizens without heat and trigger a large-scale humanitarian crisis.
During the talks, Trump agreed to move forward on granting Ukraine licenses for the localized production of Patriot interceptors. Zelenskyy has already held meetings with representatives of defense giants Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. However, launching its own production line could take anywhere from one to five years, while Kyiv needs about 300 missiles by this winter.
“That timeline won’t work. We needed the Patriots yesterday,” Zelenskyy said.
At the same time, Ukraine is working on an alternative scenario together with its American partners. This involves modifying domestic ballistic missiles to convert them into anti-aircraft interceptors, which would be a significantly faster and cheaper solution.
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Meeting Between Zelenskyy and Trump
As a reminder, on July 28, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Washington for a visit and met with U.S. President Donald Trump.
The leaders discussed the production of interceptors for the Patriot air defense system, the revitalization of the negotiation process, and other issues.
According to Trump, the meeting went “very well.”
In addition, yesterday the U.S. Senate, during a procedural vote, supported a bill to strengthen sanctions against Russia and Iran, one of whose authors was Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.
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