Representatives of the White House and the Pentagon have warned that the US will soon not be able to supply enough interceptor missiles for Ukraine’s Patriot air defense systems, the New York Times reports on January 6, Ukrainian Pravda reports and Independent Kyiv.

Patriot systems were critical to Ukraine’s air defenses in repelling Russian airstrikes across the country. According to the New York Times, the Patriot interceptor missile could cost between $2 million and $4 million.

Since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow has fired more than 7,400 missiles into Ukraine, killing and injuring civilians and causing significant damage to critical civilian infrastructure.

Among Ukraine’s air defense systems, only Patriot systems are designed to counter ballistic missiles. Since they arrived in Ukraine, the systems have changed the shape of war.

Ukraine shot down a record number of Kh-47M2 “Kinzhal” ballistic missiles, which Russia fired at the country on January 2, said the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny. The Air Force said it intercepted all 10 Kinjal missiles fired by Russia on Jan. 2 using Patriot air defense systems.

If the missiles hit the target, the consequences would be catastrophic, Zaluzhny wrote on X.

On December 31, the Air Force of Ukraine reported that from May 4 to the end of 2023, it shot down 15 Kinjal missiles.

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Moscow is counting on the termination of Ukrainian interceptors

A Ukrainian general said this week that Ukraine’s mobile air defenses have enough ammunition to deal with only “a few” new large-scale attacks by Russia, and that they can only be replenished with help from the West.

“In the current situation, from the point of view of mobile air defense systems, there is enough ammunition (…) to withstand the next major attacks,” stressed General Serhii Nayev, commander of the United Forces of Ukraine, in an interview with AFP during the meeting . meeting on Wednesday with other military personnel near Kyiv.

“But in the medium and long term, we obviously need the help of Western countries to restore the stockpile of missiles,” added the general who commands these units tasked with protecting the skies above the capital.

Therefore, for him, the priority is to “get more ammunition” before the Russian army, which “really wants to exhaust the air defense system.”

One of the Kremlin’s main goals, explains Mick Ryan, a research fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), is to “test” Ukraine’s air defenses, which have been modernized by the American Patriot system and its Franco-Italian equivalent. , SAMP/T MAMBA.

Moscow is trying to race against time in the hope that “Ukraine will run out of interceptors before Russia runs out of missiles and drones,” this retired Australian general wrote on X.