In an interview with CNN, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine received two and a half times fewer interceptor missiles for Patriot systems this year than in 2025. Russia, he said, now launches twice as many ballistic missiles per month as before.
If the US sold Ukraine 5% of its interceptor missiles, that would be enough to survive the winter and save lives, Zelensky said. "If they can sell us 10%, we will destroy all Russian ballistic missiles. I have 1%," CNN quoted him as saying.
Zelensky said he has several months to resolve the supply issue and that he tries daily to negotiate with allies. "I'm trying to exchange something for missiles... I'm doing things I can't even talk about. It doesn't mean they're illegal. But I just can't talk about them," the Ukrainian president said. He called the missile situation one of the biggest challenges since the start of the war.
At the end of July, Zelensky asked US President Donald Trump at a White House meeting for a hundred Patriot missiles. According to the Financial Times, Trump rejected the request, saying the ammunition was needed to protect US military bases in the Middle East. Later he said, "we need the missiles ourselves." The Atlantic reported that Patriot manufacturers Raytheon and Lockheed Martin opposed granting Ukraine licenses to produce them.