Ukraine Hopes European Partners Will Help Fund Purchase Of 500 Patriot Missiles Zelensky

(MENAFN- UkrinForm) According to an Ukrinform correspondent, the head of state made the remarks while speaking to the media in Turkey, commenting on the U.S. approval of the sale of 500 Patriot missiles to Ukraine and the prospects for missile deliveries this winter.

"We have an understanding of what we will have this winter. It is not enough. It is not enough to protect [us]... 500 missiles... We are grateful to the United States. This is a very good offer. Of course, we need to raise funds for this offer. I am confident that we will find the funding with the help of our partners, primarily European ones," he said.

Zelensky noted that deliveries of the missiles had been postponed by several years, partly due to the specifics of their production. At the same time, he said the United States was supplying, or was ready to supply, weapons from its stockpiles to Ukraine only slowly, and that this pace was insufficient to ensure adequate protection for Ukrainians. He also cited the conflict in the Middle East as another challenge affecting the allocation of all aid packages.

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He noted that Ukraine continued its work on a bilateral track with Europe and other countries.

"If we were to rely only on the number coming from the United States, it would be... things are already painful for us, and they would be even more painful," he said.

At the same time, Zelensky stressed that the U.S. package remained very important.

"Several times during this war, we have done this... and in various discussions, this arrangement of swapping places in the queue has worked. I will try to do this with some partners. With that package of 500 [missiles], we could get 10, 20 or 30 [missiles] from someone else, sign the relevant guarantees and agreements that we would later replenish those supplies from the U.S. package, with some interest or perhaps without interest. So this is a major ongoing daily effort," he said.

As Ukrinform reported, the U.S. Department of State approved the possible sale to Ukraine of 500 PAC-3 MSE missiles for Patriot air defense systems, worth a total of $2.1 billion.

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