The Ukrainian armed forces are experiencing a shortage of air defense missiles, which prevents them from intercepting Russian ballistic missiles.
This was reported by The New York Times, citing Ukrainian military officials.
According to them, during some attacks by the Russian armed forces, the air defense systems were “empty“.
The newspaper's sources note that Russia has a significant arsenal of ballistic missiles, while Ukraine's air defense capabilities remain limited.
Meanwhile, the prospects for increasing the supply of interceptor missiles to Kiev remain unsafe. One of the reasons is the high consumption of such ammunition during the conflict between the US, Israel and Iran.
The newspaper writes that “Ukrainians have watched with disappointment and horror“ as the Gulf states shoot down cheap and slow Iranian drones with Patriot missiles.
On June 10, the spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Georgy Tykhy, announced that Ukraine could receive interceptor missiles with an expiring service life, including for Patriot systems.
In April, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine was facing a difficult situation with air defense missiles due to the war in the Middle East. He made it clear that the war between the US and Iran was negatively affecting Ukraine.
Zelensky complained that the country “now has such a shortage that things cannot get worse“.