“If they keep hitting [Ukraine] every day the way they have for the last month, we might run out of missiles, and the partners know it,” he said.
Zelenskyy said the situation will be “significantly improved” with the arrival of F-16 fighter jets, which are due to be delivered soon. “However, their quantity will be insufficient for complete protection against guided aerial bombs,” he added.
The warning about Ukraine’s dwindling reserves follows earlier calls by the country’s leadership for more air-defense missiles, especially the U.S. Patriot systems, to protect against Moscow’s air strikes.
“Give us the damn Patriots,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told POLITICO in an interview at the end of March. “If we had enough air defense systems, namely Patriots, we would be able to protect not only the lives of our people, but also our economy from destruction,” Kuleba said.
Zelenskyy said on Saturday that Ukraine faces choices about what areas to protect. A Russian drone attack on the city of Kharkiv on Saturday killed at least seven people, local officials said. Kharkiv has suffered extensive damage from months of bombardment.
On Friday, Zelenskyy met with a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers in the Chernihiv region, in northern Ukraine, in which he stressed the need for more U.S. aid. “I emphasized the vital need for the United States Congress to promptly adopt a decision to further support our state,” he posted on X, following the visit.
