Ukraine urgently needs a "winter package" of interceptor missiles for its Patriot air defense systems to protect energy infrastructure from devastating Russian strikes, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Axios in an interview following his meeting with Donald Trump at the White House.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s stockpile of Patriot missiles is nearly exhausted, leaving the country vulnerable to Russian ballistic missile strikes. If the problem is not solved before the cold sets in, new strikes on power plants could leave millions of people without heating and trigger a large-scale humanitarian crisis.
During the talks, Trump agreed to move forward on licensing Ukraine to localize production of Patriot interceptors. Zelenskyy has already held meetings with representatives of defense giants Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. However, launching Ukraine’s own production line could take one to five years, while Kyiv needs around 300 missiles by this winter.
"That timeline doesn’t work. We needed Patriots yesterday," Zelenskyy said.
In parallel, Ukraine is working with U.S. partners on an alternative scenario involving the modification of domestic ballistic missiles into anti-aircraft interceptors, which would be a much faster and cheaper solution.
