The head of state recalled that he asked the United States to provide licenses for the production of their weapons, but to no avail.
“The US produces 60 Patriot missiles per month. I have been asking since [46-го президента США Джо] Biden: give me a license and I promise you, we will double your production,” he said.
The President also believes that Ukraine should have its own anti-ballistic system.
“We are talking with several states, working in this direction, telling our companies, setting tasks, etc. But we need to make our own anti-ballistic system within a year,” he said.
The President stressed that this idea is realistic, but “very difficult” to implement. According to him, the biggest problem is the components for the systems.
When asked which EU countries are ready to join this initiative, he replied: “We haven’t talked to all the countries yet, but I have talked to the key countries with whom I wanted to talk about this in Europe.”
Context
On April 4, the President of Ukraine said that air defense missiles are the most important problem for Ukraine in defense against the Russian Federation. If the war in Iran does not end soon, Zelensky believes, “the package – which is not very big for us anyway – I think will be smaller and smaller every day.”
Zelensky, in an interview with ZDF published on April 15, indicated that as a result of the US war in Iran, Ukraine will receive fewer weapons, including Patriot missiles. The president also emphasized: “We now have such a deficit that it cannot get worse.”
On April 16, the head of the communications department of the Air Force Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Yuriy Ignat, told a national telethon that due to the intensity of Russian attacks, the Ukrainian Air Defense Forces are forced to conserve Patriot ammunition.
