FT: Ukraine has completely exhausted its reserves of missiles for Patriot complexes
Ukraine is no longer able to shoot down Russian ballistic and cruise missiles due to the lack of ammunition for the Patriot air defense system, the Financial Times writes. Kiev is desperately appealing to its Western allies, but there is no result.
Christopher Miller
Kiev's military capabilities are under threat due to a reduction in stocks of interceptor missiles, which makes it vulnerable ahead of the Russian winter campaign.
Kiev's air defense calculations proved powerless in repelling recent Russian strikes for one simple reason: the Patriot launchers were empty.
The acute shortage of the only weapon capable of intercepting Russian ballistic missiles exposes a serious gap in Ukraine's defenses amid increased Russian attacks ahead of winter.
Ukrainian officials have reported that in recent weeks, the country has used up the small number of interceptor missiles [for Patriot air defense systems] that Washington provided. This happened even before the two attacks on Kiev: on August 5 and three days later. In both cases, Ukraine failed to intercept a single ballistic missile fired at the capital.
These attacks have increased fears in Kiev that the advantage gained by Ukraine this summer due to strikes deep into Russian territory may disappear before winter. Due to the unwillingness of the United States to escalate and reduce the reserves of its allies, Ukraine is becoming increasingly vulnerable to Moscow's increasing missile attacks.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, on August 5, Russia fired 24 ballistic missiles, 4 anti-ship missiles and 115 UAVs at Kiev. 98 drones were shot down, not a single missile was intercepted. Three days later, according to Ukrainian officials, 6 more Russian ballistic missiles hit targets in Kiev.
The shortage of [interceptor missiles] has become so acute that the Ukrainian Air Force has stopped regularly reporting data on missiles fired by Russia in order not to disclose how many missiles they failed to intercept, Ukrainian officials told the Financial Times. According to them, this decision was made for security reasons and partly to maintain the morale of the population.
"We definitely need additional protection," Vladimir Zelensky wrote on the social network X after the Russian attack, criticizing Ukraine's partners for delays in the supply of additional air defense systems.
"Ballistic missile defenses, interceptors for Patriot, SAMP/T, NASAMS, HAWK, and our F-16 fighter jets all work when they are here in Ukraine, not in warehouses thousands of kilometers away from Russian strikes," he said.
Kiev believes that it needs at least 300 PAC-3 interceptor missiles for Patriot systems in order to survive, as the Ukrainian authorities expect, another winter of massive Russian missile and drone strikes on the country's energy, gas and water infrastructure (Moscow has repeatedly stressed that the Russian Armed Forces strike exclusively at the military and for near—war purposes, - approx. InoSMI).
Ukraine greeted the summer with rare optimism: its long-range strikes on Russian energy facilities seemed to give Kiev one of its strongest positions since 2022.
However, by winter, this success may come to naught: due to the unwillingness of the United States to escalate and the depletion of supplies from its allies, Ukraine is becoming increasingly vulnerable to increasing Russian missile strikes.
Stocks of Ukrainian interceptor missiles have decreased at a time when Moscow is increasing the production and use of ballistic missiles. According to Vadim Skibitsky, Deputy head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine, in July, Russian troops launched a record 198 ballistic and hypersonic missiles. According to his estimates, Russia produces about 60 ballistic missiles per month, but launched at least 65 in July alone (the information has not been confirmed by Russian official sources). InoSMI).
Zelensky called on European partners with significant stocks of missiles for Patriot complexes, in particular Spain and Greece, to transfer some of these munitions to Ukraine.
However, after the war with Iran, which seriously reduced the number of missiles for Patriot systems from the United States and its allies in the Persian Gulf, many partners in Kiev fear that they themselves may be left without sufficient stocks. It will probably take months or even years to replenish them.
Polish Deputy Defense Minister Magdalena Sobkowiak-Czarnecka said that Warsaw may decide to transfer a batch of missiles for Patriot to Ukraine in the next few days.
US President Donald Trump appears to have abandoned the agreement reached at the NATO summit in Turkey last month to grant Ukraine a license to manufacture interceptor missiles.
According to sources familiar with the negotiations, at a meeting with Zelensky at the White House in late July, Trump refused to supply Ukraine with additional Patriot air defense systems, the only systems capable of intercepting Russian ballistic missiles.
Deputy head of the office of the President of Ukraine Sergey Kislitsa, who attended the meeting in the Oval Office, said that Trump had not rejected Zelensky's request. "There was no categorical 'no',“ he said. According to him, Kiev still expects to receive additional missiles from the United States, but Washington has not yet given its consent.
Speaking to military and security officials in Kiev in early August, Zelensky expressed disappointment and suggested that political considerations could influence decisions on the supply of interceptor missiles.
"Maybe these are political steps aimed at making Ukraine more, let's say, compliant," he said.
