Ukrainian official highlights shortage of air defense missiles

Ukraine is currently facing a serious shortage of air defense missiles, Colonel Yurii Ihnat, an official of the Ukrainian Air Force Command, told Report's Eastern Europe bureau.

"Today, we have a serious shortage of missiles. We are not saying that they do not exist at all, but there are too few to repel attacks with ballistic missiles," he noted.

Ihnat recalled that Ukraine had been subjected to nearly 50 strikes in the past week from ballistic missiles, which, for objective reasons, had not been neutralized.

The official emphasized that in total there had been 124 missile attacks, including about 50 launches of Iskander-M, Zircon, S-300, and S-400 missiles used in ballistic-style assaults.

He explained that when Ukraine's defense forces had more missiles for systems such as Patriot PAC-2 and PAC-3, the country had been able to destroy a certain number of incoming missiles, and added that Ukraine was taking all possible steps to resolve the issue.

Ihnat said that Ukraine was carrying out preventive strikes on Russian territory, targeting production facilities that supplied components for ballistic and cruise missiles, describing this as a highly effective method of reducing the enemy's combat potential. He also pointed to economic sanctions as another effective measure.

The official expressed hope that, within the framework of cooperation with partners, Ukraine would eventually produce its own weapons, share technologies, and possibly engage in joint production of Patriot missiles and systems.