KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that he's being “very persistent” in pressing the United States to provide his country with more Patriot air defense missiles that can counter devastating Russian ballistic missile attacks.
Zelenskyy said he hasn’t yet received a reply to a letter he sent earlier this week to U.S. President Donald Trump and Congress asking for more of the American-made ammunition. He warned
that deliveries to Ukraine are falling dangerously short as the Iran war diverts and depletes U.S. stocks.
“I believe (the U.S.) must act quicker. We are being very persistent,” Zelenskyy told reporters during a visit to Sweden.
Zelenskyy is keen to secure more deliveries of foreign weaponry that it can’t produce itself as it battles Russia’s full-scale invasion, which began on Feb. 24, 2022. In exchange, he's offering to share the cutting-edge drone expertise that Ukraine has built up during the war.
Russia has used its long-range ballistic missiles to damage Ukraine’s power grid and hammer cities.
The Ukrainian capital is bracing for further heavy bombardments. But no foreign diplomats are known to have heeded Moscow’s recommendation to leave Kyiv before what the Russian Foreign Ministry said earlier this week would be upcoming “systemic strikes” on Kyiv.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said Thursday that all diplomatic missions in the capital have continued operations.
Ukraine plans to buy 20 advanced Gripen fighter jets from Sweden for 2.5 billion euros ($2.9 billion), with Sweden also donating 16 older Gripen models once the purchase goes through, Zelenskyy announced on his trip to Sweden.
The money for the jets will come out of a 90 billion-euro ($105 billion) loan to Ukraine that the European Union recently approved, Zelenskyy said during a trip to Sweden.
The combat aircraft will be especially helpful in stopping Russian planes that launch powerful glide bombs at Ukraine, he said at an aircraft hangar standing in front of Gripen jets alongside Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.
Ukraine will get the older models early next year and the new models from 2030, Kristersson said. The planes will be equipped with weaponry, and Sweden will provide maintenance and training, he said.
Ukraine eventually wants 150 Gripen jets, Zelenskyy said.
Meanwhile, Sweden is “extremely eager” to learn from Ukraine’s drone warfare experience, Kristersson said.
Zelenskyy says Ukrainian specialists have helped countries in the Middle East — specifically the Gulf Arab region — strengthen their air defenses during the Iran war. They have helped at American military bases in the Middle East as well, he says.
Ukraine has also entered into joint drone production agreements with countries in the European Union, which fears that Russian President Vladimir Putin has military ambitions beyond Ukraine.
Ukrainian drones that patrol the 1,250-kilometer (780-mile) front line and strike deeper at supply routes have pinned back Russia's bigger army.
“Ukraine’s successful midrange and front-line drone strike campaigns are limiting Russia’s ability to transport personnel to the front line and to supply and sustain front-line positions,” the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said in an assessment late Wednesday.
Russia has occupied about 20% of Ukraine so far. That includes the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized in 2014. The cost of capturing that land has been huge, with the head of the U.K. intelligence agency GCHQ saying Wednesday that almost 500,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in the conflict.
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