President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Wednesday that Ukraine was preparing agreements to strengthen the country’s air defenses, and said he had held a meeting on the matter at the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine after “significant progress” was made in equipping Ukraine with anti-aircraft systems. more modern and stronger “sky defense”, reports News.ro.

“Today we had a meeting of the General Staff. I spoke, in particular, about the protection of the sky. We are constantly strengthening our air and drone defenses. And we are doing everything to get more modern and powerful systems for Ukraine.

This week we made significant progress on air defense. (…) We are preparing agreements that will strengthen our defense capabilities and provide Ukraine with more operational capabilities,” Volodymyr Zelenskyi said on Wednesday in a video message that he sends to his compatriots, as he does every evening.

According to CNN, Joe Biden’s administration will prepare to send the Patriot anti-missile defense system to Ukraine, an official decision may be announced this week. Once the plans are finalized, the Patriot systems are expected to be shipped in the coming days, and the Ukrainians will be trained to use them at the US military base in Grafenwehr, Germany.

Ukrainian authorities have been asking for Patriot batteries for months, but have yet to confirm that the US has agreed to send them.

Zelensky mentioned the attack of an Iranian drone on the capital Kyiv on Wednesday morning. All 13 drones launched by Russia were shot down by air defense systems.

On the other hand, he noted that the situation in Donbas and other frontline territories is far from calm.

“There is no peace on the front line. There is nothing easy and simple. Every day, every meter is earned extremely hard. Especially if the entire tactic of the occupiers boils down to destroying everything in front of them with artillery, leaving only ruins and sinkholes in the ground,” Zelenskyi said.

“Russia is destroying city after city in Donbas, for example, Mariupol, Volnovakha, Bakhmut. Defense in such conditions is not only heroism, it is something more. And I thank all our fighters who are resisting the pressure of the occupiers,” Zelenskyy added.

At the same time, Zelenskyi assured Ukrainians that he would continue steps to establish a special court in the case of Russian aggression and bring to justice all those responsible for it.

“Today we called on our friends in Europe and members of the European Parliament to step up their efforts so that the tribunal can finally be operational. The terrorist state must bear responsibility for every burned Ukrainian city, for every destroyed life of our people,” Zelenskyy said.

At the same time, the president announced a new exchange of prisoners with Russia, which took place on Wednesday and allowed 64 Ukrainians, including four officers, to return home.

Zelenskyi also said that during the day he had “very important talks” with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. “I thanked him for his constant support of Ukraine and international law, for effective assistance in the implementation of our initiatives, such as “Grains from Ukraine.”

Currently, we are working on the organization of missions with an international mandate to the critical energy infrastructure of our country,” said Volodymyr Zelenskyy, News.ro reports.