Missile shortage hits some air defence systems – Zelenskyy

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Ukraine faces a shortage of missiles for some air defence systems and is discussing solutions to this problem with its partners.

Source: Zelenskyy during a press conference in Brussels

Details: Zelenskyy said that he does not want to specify publicly which missiles are in question but stressed that some air defence systems lack certain types of munitions.

Quote: "There are some systems that don't have certain types of missiles. Today I have discussed with partners that we can keep talking about this issue for a long time, but we are being attacked every day. Every minute some [weapon] is striking somewhere. This needs to be shot down. So partners either give licences or give missiles or help with money and we buy them ourselves. There are no other ways."

More details: Zelenskyy also said that Russia is setting record budgets not for peace but for war against Ukraine, which he believes poses a long-term threat not only to Ukraine but also to other countries.

He added that partners' decisions on supporting Ukraine are an important indicator of how well they understand the scale of the threat.

Quote: "This could be a new stage of the war. I don't want to frighten anyone. Everyone just needs to be ready. And the last point: does Europe understand? This is a very important catalyst. Today's decision is the answer as to whether our partners understand us or not. We will see."

Background:

• Russia attacked Ukraine with 82 drones on the night of 17-18 December. Ukrainian air defence forces destroyed 63 UAVs, but hits were recorded at 12 locations.
• On 16 December, UK Defence Secretary John Healey announced that the UK is investing £600 million (over US$800 million) – the largest single-year investment – to boost Ukraine's air defence. He made the announcement at the opening of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group meeting (also known as the Ramstein format).
• On 11 September, Ukraine and the UK signed an agreement on the production of Ukrainian interceptor drones.
• The UK Ministry of Defence had previously announced that the first joint project would be a new advanced air defence interceptor drone called Project Octopus.

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