During a press conference with the Prime Minister of Spain in Madrid, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine needs air defence systems to defend itself against Russian missile and bomb attacks. Western partners should also understand that the air defence systems provided to Ukraine will be its defence against Russia, not an attack on Russian territory.
This was reported by Interfax-Ukraine.
"The most important problem that exists today is Russia's use of more than 3,000 guided bombs. Just on people. In a month," Zelenskyy said.
The President of Ukraine added that the number of Russian bombs could increase to 3,500 next month.
"Thousands of bombs are flying right at people's heads. No matter how prepared a person is, no matter how much protection they have, they cannot withstand this. People cannot withstand it. How can we fight this? There are not enough air defence missiles to deal with this," he stressed.
"At least seven systems. Because we need at least two systems for Kharkiv alone, for this direction. Why? Russia uses these bombs from its aircraft. And if we have modern Patriot systems, these planes will not be able to fly so close to use these bombs directly on the civilian population and our military. This is an obvious fact. I'm not talking about dozens of systems to completely shut down the skies over Ukraine. I'm talking about at least preventing Russia from using thousands of bombs. This is what we are talking about," Zelenskyy added.
The Head of State called for putting pressure on Western partners to provide Ukraine with additional air defence systems, because "even those partners who are afraid to give us weapons must understand that air defence is defence, not offence. It is defence. And this is the only way for us," the President summed up.