Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has assured that they will not be able to survive the Russian attacks during the next winter if the United States does not sell them at least 5% of its Patriot missiles. “I have 1%,” said the president, as Moscow continues to increase the number of ballistic missiles.
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“This year we have two and a half times fewer interceptors than in 2025. Russia launches twice as many ballistic missiles every month. There are bombings every night, and four or five times a month there are massive attacks. They are terrible nights,” the Ukrainian president recounted in an interview for CNN, published this Thursday.
This past July was the deadliest month for the Ukrainian civilian population since April 2022, when the Russian invasion had just begun, according to the United Nations, with large-scale attacks in Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia.
“If they sell us 10%, we will destroy all Russian ballistic missiles,” Zelensky stated, who despite daily efforts is unable to reach these figures. “It takes me months, I make millions of calls. I try to exchange something for missiles. I do things I can’t even talk about,” he said.
These efforts have also been hampered by the high demand for these projectiles in the Middle East, as the war between the United States and Iran continues, a country that has extended the conflict to the interests and facilities that Washington has in several countries in the region.
Zelensky also pointed out that it is still a “challenge” to know how he will be able to implement the apparent approval that the U.S. president, Donald Trump, granted two months ago at the NATO summit in Ankara, to independently manufacture these Patriot projectiles on Ukrainian soil.
“I hope to achieve it (…) it represents a great challenge for me, one of the biggest I have had since the beginning of this war,” the Ukrainian president acknowledged, taking the opportunity to call for even more involvement from Washington in resolving the conflict.
In that sense, he reiterated that only Trump is capable of putting enough pressure on the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to stop the attacks. “He does not want to stop this war and is not being pressured enough,” Zelensky warned, who does not rule out that Moscow will extend the conflict to NATO.
“He does not know how to end this war without a great occupation or a great victory for his society. It is easier for him to find a smaller country, it will not matter if that country belongs to NATO or not. He wants a quick victory, with absolute certainty that he will win, occupy, destroy or control,” he asserted.
