In 2023, Ukraine received 675 missiles for Patriot air defence systems from partner countries. In 2025, supplies totalled 354 missiles, while the number of Russian strikes increased.
So far this year, 264 missiles are expected. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this at a meeting with journalists on 22 August, LB’s correspondent reports.
“That is PAC-3 and PAC-2 combined. PAC-3 is what we receive from the US through the PURL programme. All our partners — both Americans and Europeans — understand what sum they are transferring and understand exactly how many missiles they are providing us. There are some separate bilateral arrangements with certain Europeans and with countries in the Middle East. But you can see that, unfortunately, there is a downward trend, and this depends primarily on the American side,” he said.
The President tried to find 300 air defence missiles in order to get through the coming winter.
“The request from our Air Force is 360. But when 600 are produced a year, 360 is not easy. We are working with countries on additional options. And I would very much like to believe that we can find the key to some small percentage of US stockpiles — say, 5% or 10%. And we are ready to pay for these supplies. That is, America could replenish its stock, and we could get through the winter. Such a political decision by America on supplying missiles could change a great deal — both in protecting lives and diplomatically as well,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
He added that he had reached an agreement with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on 600 PAC-2 missiles for 2027–2028.
“PAC-2 also shoots down ballistic missiles; you just need more missiles. Separately, we are negotiating with the Americans. The Americans are seriously increasing production in the second half of 2027 and beyond. But that takes time, unfortunately. So we continue talking to them now about the required volumes — in fact, they do have the volumes,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
- This year, due to a shortage of anti-ballistic missiles, there have already been several attacks in which not a single missile could be intercepted. Ukraine is trying to reach agreements with partners on new supplies and is also developing its own anti-ballistic Freyja project jointly with European countries.
- Earlier, the President said that in the first six months of this year, supplies of air defence missiles fell threefold compared with the previous year.