Ukraine has run out of missiles for Patriot air defence systems – WP

Ukraine has completely exhausted its stock of interceptor missiles for the US-made Patriot air defence systems.

Source: The Washington Post, citing two Ukrainian officials and a NATO representative

Details: According to one source, Ukraine had only 10 Patriot missiles left as of 7 October.

"These were used up during the attacks. Currently, there are only a couple remaining," a Ukrainian official said.

Quote: "A second person familiar with Ukraine's deteriorating air defence situation said the country is out of the sophisticated weapons, which are critical to shooting down incoming Russian ballistic missiles."

Details: A Ukrainian official stressed that "the situation is extremely tense".

CNN reported earlier that Ukraine had run out of Patriot missiles. According to its source, the shortage of ammunition was the reason Ukrainian air defences had been unable to intercept Russian ballistic targets during the latest large-scale attack.

Global missile stocks have been rapidly depleted by the war in the Middle East, launched by US President Donald Trump. In the first month of the war with Iran alone, the US used more than 1,000 Patriot and THAAD interceptors.

Washington has made accelerating production a priority, but manufacturing a single missile can take up to 36 months.

Until now, missiles for Ukraine have been supplied through the PURL programme , under which European countries pay for US-made weapons. 

A senior NATO official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the programme remained operational and that "air defence munitions like Patriot interceptors continue to flow".

However, a Ukrainian official raised concerns about the nature of the deliveries.

"Since May, supplies have been irregular, and right now no one can say with any certainty or guarantee that a delivery will actually arrive," the official said.

Background:

• Throughout the summer and autumn of 2026, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly urged Ukraine's partners to urgently increase supplies of missiles for Patriot air defence systems. In August, he stressed that Ukraine needed between 300 and 360 Patriot missiles to get through the winter safely. Meanwhile, Western deliveries had fallen sharply, from 675 missiles in 2023 to 364 in 2025, with only 264 planned for 2026.
• Meanwhile, according to reports in the media, the governments of Greece and Spain would rather keep Patriot missiles nearing the end of their service lives in storage than transfer them to Ukraine.

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