Ukraine needs 5% of U.S. interceptor stocks to survive winter – Zelenskyy
Zelenskyy explained how many U.S. interceptor missiles Ukraine needs to survive the winter (Photo: t.me/V_Zelenskiy_official)
Ukraine needs at least 5% of the U.S. interceptor missile stockpile to survive the winter, while 10% would be enough to prevent all Russian ballistic missile strikes, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview with CNN on August 13.
Russian ballistic attacks have risen fast in recent weeks, hitting Kyiv particularly hard, as Moscow exploits Ukraine’s near-zero stocks of Patriot interceptor missiles. Zelenskyy said a tenth of the U.S. current stockpile would be enough to stop all Russian ballistic missile attacks, but 5% would be enough to get Ukraine through the winter.
Ukraine currently has two and a half times fewer interceptor missiles than last year, while Russia's monthly ballistic missile launches have doubled, the president noted.
He added that if the U.S. “sell us 5%, we will go through the winter and save people’s lives. If they can sell us 10%, we will destroy all the Russians’ ballistic missiles. I have 1%.”
The president also highlighted his daily efforts to secure additional missiles, noting ongoing talks with allies to negotiate resource exchanges and explore alternative acquisition methods.
“This is what I live each day: from 1% to 5%. I have some months, and million phone calls … I try to exchange something to missiles,” he said. “I do some things which I can’t even share. It doesn’t mean that it’s outside of the law. But I can’t speak about it.”
Zelenskyy blamed the shortage on a global deficit, noting that intense consumption by the U.S. and its allies in the war with Iran has left Ukrainian cities increasingly vulnerable to Russian strikes.
Zelenskyy said there were still doubts about how President Donald Trump’s apparent commitment to letting Ukraine build its own Patriot interceptor missiles would come to fruition.
Trump, on the sidelines of the NATO Ankara summit, said he would permit Ukraine to get a license to manufacture the complex interceptors themselves, but days later said he was unsure of the idea. The manufacturers of the Patriot missile systems have sent officials to Kyiv to discuss the idea, but results remain elusive.
“I hope that I will get it,” Zelenskyy said. “I don’t have now 5% and I don’t have such an acceptance. And this is for me is a big challenge, one of the biggest I had from the very beginning of this war.”
Zelenskyy said he was beseeching the White House directly, through calls, messages and indirectly through allies, to boost their Patriot assistance. But he was otherwise reluctant to provide details on his recent interactions with the Trump administration.
Trump declined Zelenskyy’s request for hundreds of additional Patriot interceptor missiles during a meeting in the Oval Office on August 5. Trump cited a shortage in U.S. stocks and said they were needed to defend American assets in the Middle East and Gulf nations in the war with Iran.
Zelenskyy said on August 8 that Ukraine had reached an agreement with the United States on monthly deliveries of missiles for Patriot systems, but that the quantities available were insufficient.
Ukraine is currently negotiating with European partners for additional interceptor missiles, including Poland and Germany, as well as Scandinavian countries.
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