Ukraine will plead for urgent shipments of surface-to-air missiles at a meeting of its western allies this week, fearful that an acute shortage could allow Russia to launch widespread bombing attacks,
Financial Times reports.
Kyiv will press allies to bolster their dwindling stocks at the so-called Ramstein military co-ordination group on Friday, according to three officials briefed on the preparations. Without adequate air defences, western capitals fear a long-planned counter-offensive against occupying Russian troops could falter.
Recent shipments of Soviet-designed MiG fighter jets to Ukraine are in part intended to mitigate the threat of Russia’s large, yet so far underused, air power. But Kyiv is desperate for more missiles capable of shooting down fighter jets having used large quantities to counter barrages of Moscow’s drones and missiles.
“Short-range air defence has been a topic that has been raised increasingly by the Ukrainians,” said one European official. “If they use them all up, it opens the space up for air forces.”
“If Russia can get in with dumb bombers, Ukraine will be in trouble,” they added, referring to unguided munitions dropped from planes. “It’s looking grim.”
Western intelligence shared among NATO allies earlier this year warned that Russia was amassing fighter jets and attack helicopters close to the front line in Ukraine.
That prompted an immediate surge of air defence assets, including via a $2bn US support package announced in late February.
Ukraine’s defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Wednesday that his country had started receiving US-made Patriot missile systems, the most advanced air defence systems provided by western backers so far.
“Today our sky becomes more secure,” Reznikov said in a post on Twitter in which he expressed gratitude to the US, Germany and Netherlands.
The three countries have pledged several kits to Ukraine. Reznikov and other Ukrainian officials would not reveal how many are needed to conduct an effective counteroffensive this spring.
But officials said the continuing need to defend against Russian missile and drone attacks had systematically depleted Ukraine’s stockpiles — a warning backed up by US intelligence documents leaked online this spring that suggested Kyiv might run out of ammunition for five critical air defence systems.
According to documents reviewed by the Financial Times, the US assessed in late February that Ukraine’s ability to protect its troops on the front lines would be “completely reduced” by May 23.
