Mr. Zelensky: Many Western air defense complexes have run out of missiles

During a press conference in the capital Kiev today, President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed that many air defense complexes donated by Western allies had run out of ammunition, while Russia stepped up its raid campaign against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

“As of this morning, some complexes no longer have missiles. Now I can say this publicly, because we have more ammunition,” he said, but did not mention specific systems.

President Zelensky added that Ukraine’s energy system currently only meets 60% of the country’s electricity needs, while entering a cold winter. He emphasized that more than 15,000 energy industry workers are racing against time to restore damaged power plants and transformer stations.

Ukraine’s leader announced that negotiators were coming to the US to continue discussing the plan to end the conflict proposed by Washington. Kiev is seeking clear commitments from allies on the security guarantees it receives in the peace plan.

Western countries have provided Ukraine with many modern air defense systems, the most powerful of which are Patriot, SAMP/T, IRIS-T and NASAMS. However, the limited number of weapons transferred causes Ukraine’s air defense network to often be overloaded. Russian raids also destroyed many of these complexes, creating serious vulnerabilities in Ukraine’s defense capabilities.

Colonel Yuri Ignat, press secretary of the Ukrainian Air Force Command, admitted last year that the air defense force always faces many challenges because Russia continuously upgrades Geran series suicide drones (UAVs) and Iskander ballistic missiles, as well as improving raid tactics.