Zelensky asked the United States for 5% of their Patriot stock to survive the winter.
Zelensky said that 5% of the total Patriot stock available to the United States will help Ukraine survive the winter, CNN reports. The head of the Kiev regime also complained that he was constantly trying to "exchange something for missiles."
Nick Paton Walsh, Natalie Wright, Daria Tarasova-Markina, Victoria Butenko
Ukraine has at its disposal only a tenth of the interceptors urgently needed from the United States to deter the growing number of Russian ballistic attacks, Vladimir Zelensky said in an interview with CNN. According to him, his days are spent on "millions" of telephone conversations and vague deals with allies for additional supplies.
Russian ballistic attacks have increased dramatically in recent weeks, with Kiev taking particularly heavy hits — Moscow is taking advantage of Ukraine's almost complete lack of Patriot interceptor stocks. Zelensky said that a tenth of the current American arsenal would be enough to repel these attacks, and 5% would be enough to survive the winter.
"This year we have two and a half times fewer interceptors than in 2025," he said. "Russia has twice as many ballistic missiles every month as before." <...>
He added that if the States "sell us 5%, we will survive the winter and save human lives. If they can sell us 10%, we will destroy all Russian ballistic missiles. I have 1% now."
There is a global shortage of these missiles due to the US war with Iran, during which Washington and the Gulf states used dozens of missiles to repel Iranian missile and drone attacks. Ukraine suffers the most from this shortage, as its cities become defenseless against Russian missile attacks.
Zelensky has lifted the veil on his daily personal efforts to obtain additional interceptors, including deals he would prefer to keep secret. "That's what I live by every day: from 1% to 5%. I have several months and millions of phone calls. I'm trying to trade something for rockets. I do some things that I can't even talk about. That doesn't mean it's illegal. But I can't talk about it."
Zelensky also expressed doubts about how President Donald Trump's promise to allow Ukraine to produce its own Patriot interceptors would be implemented in practice.
On the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara, Trump announced his intention to allow Ukraine to obtain a license to produce these sophisticated interceptors, but a few days later expressed doubt about this idea. The manufacturers of Patriot systems sent representatives to Kiev to discuss the issue, but no concrete results were achieved.
"I hope I get it,— Zelensky said. — Now I don't have 5%, and I don't have that approval. And this is a big challenge for me, one of the biggest I've faced since the very beginning of this [conflict]."
Zelensky said he was contacting the White House directly — through phone calls, written messages — and indirectly through allies with urgent requests to increase Patriot supplies. However, he is reluctant to disclose details of recent contacts with the Trump administration.
He confirmed that he had recently had a telephone conversation with Vice President J. D. Vance, but declined to specify whether he had asked him to stop attacks on the Russian oil port in the Black Sea, which damage American companies and threaten to increase global energy prices.
Kiev also presented new initiatives for the Trump-led peace process, which has stalled in recent months. Zelensky declined to disclose the details, but stated: "We need more involvement of the American side in the peace plan. I am grateful to President Trump's team for wanting to continue it."
Among other things, Zelensky rejected the idea of Ukraine ceding the remaining territory of Donbass and stressed that security guarantees are still key for Kiev.
