Mikhail Podolyak, an adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine , told The Guardian in an interview that Kiev needs 10-12 Patriot systems or similar air defense systems in order to be able to “cover the entire country.” He noted that the recent strikes on Odessa showed the importance of providing additional air defense systems.
“It will be much more expensive to fix all this later than to provide the Patriot system to protect the south,” Mr. Podolyak said.
He also noted that “Ukraine fatigue” is growing in some Western capitals. In his opinion, Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian cities were aimed at forcing the country’s allies to ask Kyiv to start negotiations.
Kyiv now has two Patriot systems, one from the United States and the other from Germany, writes The Guardian. In addition to the Patriot, the Ukrainian army has the IRIS-T, NASAMS, SAMP/T-Mamba and HAWK air defense systems at its disposal. On July 27, the representative of the operational command “South” of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Natalia Gumenyuk , told the AFP news agency that Russia had blocked almost all ports – at the moment, sending ships from the ports remaining near Kiev is impossible. According to her, Kyiv needs reinforced air defense systems to counter Russian attacks on port infrastructure. The Ministry of Defense has repeatedly reported attacks on military infrastructure facilities in Ukrainian port cities, including Odessa and Nikolaev.
Source : kommersant