Zelenskyy: Ukraine doesn’t have enough missiles for air defense, we’d like to get license for Patriot missiles
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced a shortage of missiles for air defense systems and announced his desire to obtain a license for domestic production of missiles for American Patriot systems.
"We are not even talking about troops directly in Ukraine now [the U.S. military contingent], but we can get licenses, not even missiles, but licenses for the production of missiles for Patriot air defense systems. We count every day, and when it's 03:00-05:00 a.m., when the commander calls me and says: ‘We are near this city. I don't want to say right now which city it is, but we don't have missiles for Patriot systems near this city. That's it, we've exhausted it, I understand that," Zelenskyy told reporters at a briefing in Kyiv on Wednesday.
"We don't have missiles for air defense systems. I think it's wrong. These are actually the things that make everyone nervous," he added.
According to him, he talked about this with representatives of the United States in the context of what they can provide to Ukraine in terms of security guarantees. "You don't want to send troops, you don't want us in NATO. Can we get enough Patriot systems? This is such a long conversation, too long," Zelenskyy stated.