Zelensky Calls on Ramstein Participants to Provide Ukraine with 10 Patriot Systems
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, addressing the meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine's Defense in Brussels, called for strengthening his country with ten additional Patriot air defense systems.
The Gaze reports on this with reference to Zelenskyy's Facebook page.
Zelenskyy noted that he was addressing the meeting from Kryvyi Rih. According to him, the city lives in conditions of almost constant air alert, either because of drones or Russian missiles.
“The most dangerous threat is ballistic missiles. When there is a ballistic threat, people have only a few minutes to get to a shelter. Just imagine what it's like to let your child go outside or just walk around the city, knowing that a missile can hit in 5 minutes after launch. This is a constant danger,” he said and reminded that exactly one week ago Russia killed 19 people in Kryvyi Rih, nine of whom were children.
According to him, a number of cities in Ukraine need additional protection from Russian missiles.
“You know that Ukraine has a shortage of air defense systems. You know that Patriot systems can effectively protect against ballistic threats. You also know that we are forced to move the systems we have around the country to provide at least temporary protection to different cities. And you know what happens when even one system fails - it means lost lives,” Zelenskyy said.
That is why he asked the Ramstein participants to focus primarily on air defense for Ukraine.
“We really need it. Ten Patriot systems - the free world has them. Now we need political decisions to make them work for peace. We need this result,” the president emphasized.
As The Gaze reported earlier, against the backdrop of the Russian missile attack on Kryvyi Rih on April 4, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the best assistance from the United States would be to supply the country with new Patriot systems. He made this statement at a joint press conference with Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Weever on April 8.