Zelensky Envisions Domestic Production of Air-Defense Missiles

May 9 ------ Military and industrial leaders in Kyiv are working with international partners to produce air-defense systems domestically in Ukraine, the same sorts of missile systems for which the country now relies on stockpiles in the US and Europe, Volodymyr Zelensky said. 

In his nightly address, the Ukrainian president noted that not only are conversations in motion with Western countries to provide more such air defenses – traditionally the US-made Patriot batteries and their European peer, the Franco-Italian SAMP/T – but also similar missile systems made in Ukraine in the future. “Today, air alerts have been going off in our country practically all day,” Zelensky said. “At night, there was another raid involving Russian missiles and drones. Ballistic missiles, more than 140 strike drones, overnight. It was loud in Kyiv and our other cities.” He described the rubble-clearing in Kharkiv, Sumy, and Kyiv as having continued all day on Wednesday. 

Zelensky emphasized that work is being done every week to make the Ukrainian sky more protected, “and the latest weeks are no exception.” “Work is underway with partners so that we can not only obtain new air defense systems and missiles for them, but also so that we can localize the production of these systems and missiles we need in Ukraine. This is one of the strategic decisions that are required,” Zelensky said. “And it is absolutely right that the Russian sky, the sky of the aggressor state, is also restless today,” the head of state added. 

Zelensky did not elaborate on the nature of the missiles under discussion or which international partners would collaborate. On Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, Russian forces launched at least five Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles at cities in Ukraine. Defense forces managed to shoot down only two of them. Washington will send a Patriot battery formerly based in Israel to Ukraine after it has been refurbished, The New York Times reported on Monday. 

The cost of Patriot missiles varies in media reports. But, Radio Free Liberty estimated last fall each missile costs an additional $4 million, while other reports put the unit cost of a full battery at more than $1 billion. Zelensky said recently that Kyiv is willing to pay $15 billion for 10 of the surface-to-air missile systems. But questions remain about the future availability of such defenses from Washington, as the administration of US President Donald Trump has curtailed such shipments, ever since Congress and the previous administration of Joe Biden allocated $61 billion in aid for Ukraine one year ago this week. 

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth reportedly ordered a pause in military shipments to Ukraine following a Jan. 30 Oval Office meeting with Trump, despite the latter giving no such order. This revelation comes as the Trump administration seeks to adapt its Ukraine policy after it ostensibly failed to achieve a swift end to the Russian invasion in Ukraine as promised earlier. 

According to a Reuters report on Tuesday, Hegseth reportedly halted flights to Ukraine from Air Force Bases in Delaware and Qatar without Trump’s order after the Jan. 30 meeting. Leading Italian news daily Corriere della Sera reported last month that Ukraine has run out of SAMP/T missiles, and Italian reserves of the air-defense missiles are dangerously low. The paper also noted that it was unclear whether France had enough of them to make up the difference in the near term. 

Source: kyivpost.com