President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has asked US President Donald Trump to provide Ukraine with an emergency \u00abwinter package\u00bb comprising 300 Patriot interceptor missiles. In an interview with Axios, he stated that Ukraine\u2019s stockpile of these missiles is almost depleted, and without them the country cannot defend itself against ballistic missiles and risks losing its power stations to Russian strikes.<\/p>\n
Briefly about the main points<\/strong><\/p>\n Zelenskyy attributed the urgency of the request to the risk of further Russian attacks on Ukraine\u2019s energy infrastructure. If the problem with interceptor missiles<\/a> If the problem is not resolved before winter, such attacks could destroy power stations, leaving millions of people without heating and causing a humanitarian crisis.<\/p>\n According to the president, Russia deploys between 30 and 40 ballistic missiles during each major strike on Ukraine and carries out between three and five such attacks every month. It was precisely the shortage of interceptors, he noted, that prevented Ukraine from repelling the recent attacks on Kyiv<\/a>.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, at the NATO summit in Turkey, Zelenskyy and Trump discussed the possibility of granting Ukraine licences to manufacture Patriot interceptor missiles. According to Zelenskyy, during their meeting at the White House, Trump agreed to push for this decision.<\/p>\n Following his visit to the White House, the Ukrainian president met with representatives of Lockheed Martin and Raytheon<\/a>, which manufacture Patriot interceptors. At the same time, obtaining licences will not yield immediate results: it will take between one and five years to produce significant numbers of missiles. \u00abWe needed the Patriots yesterday,\u00bb said Zelenskyy.<\/p>\n Ukraine is also exploring with US defence companies the possibility of modifying Ukrainian ballistic missiles and converting them into anti-missile systems with capabilities similar to those of the Patriot system. Zelenskyy believes that this approach could be quicker and cheaper.<\/p>\n\n
What is needed before the cold weather sets in<\/h2>\n
Production licences will not meet the urgent need<\/h2>\n
Competition for US reserves<\/h2>\n