Zelensky: Ukraine needs 300 Patriot missiles to defend this winter

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced this during a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing, according to Ukrinform, citing the head of state’s Telegram channel.

“Here in France, we began today with the inaugural meeting of our Anti-Ballistic Missile Coalition. I hope that the FREJYA project will be successful and strengthen our anti-ballistic missile defense. I invite everyone who is interested and able to contribute to our joint efforts to join us. We must move forward as quickly as possible and carry out this task well. We are capable of doing this,” he said.

The head of state noted that this project is scheduled to last for the next 12 months.

Photo: Office of the President

“We also need to protect lives here and now. We have reliable European systems—SAMP/T, IRIS-T, and NASAMS. And, of course, the most important systems today for protecting lives from Russian ballistic missiles remain the Patriots. We need missiles for air defense—this is a daily necessity, and I ask you to focus on this support,” Zelensky emphasized. 

The President stressed that we need to start preparing for next winter right now.

He assured that every effort is being made to push Russia toward diplomacy.

According to him, one of the main ways to strengthen Ukraine’s overall position should be a winter package of missiles for air defense, because “if we have sufficient protection for the winter, Russia will have significantly fewer reasons to drag the war out until winter.”

“We’ve calculated that this package should include 100 Patriot missiles per month—300 missiles for the winter,” Zelensky stated.

He asked partners to consider this initiative.

“President Trump and I have reached an important agreement on licenses for the production of Patriot systems. Our teams are now working to implement this truly historic political agreement. We have been working on this for a very long time,” the Ukrainian president noted.

At the same time, he emphasized that the more diverse the defense capabilities are, the more difficult it will be for the enemy to undermine security in Europe: “That is precisely why we need to move faster on the ‘Patriot’ issue, as well as on SAMP/T, IRIS-T, NASAMS, and, of course, our FREJYA project.”

Photo: Office of the President

“I am convinced that Europe is capable of ensuring sufficient protection against any ballistic threat. Furthermore, Europe is capable of making a strong contribution to global security,” Zelensky concluded.

As reported by Ukrinform, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the need for protection against ballistic missiles already exceeds current capabilities, which is why Ukraine, together with its European partners, is working to create the joint Freyja anti-ballistic system, which could become operational within a year.