Photo: State Emergency Service
Zelenskyy: As long as Patriot missiles remain in allies' warehouses, Russia will keep "defeating" Ukrainian homes
Against the backdrop of Russia's large-scale attack on 6 July, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Ukraine's international partners to provide additional interceptor missiles for Patriot air defence systems capable of shooting down ballistic missiles.
Ukrainska Pravda
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Against the backdrop of Russia's large-scale attack on 6 July, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Ukraine's international partners to provide additional interceptor missiles for Patriot air defence systems capable of shooting down ballistic missiles.
Source: Zelenskyy on X (Twitter); Colonel Yurii Ihnat, spokesman for the Air Force, on air during the national joint 24/7 newscast
Quote from Zelenskyy: "Our warriors performed well today in intercepting drones and cruise missiles, but unfortunately not Russian ballistic missiles. And the reason lies in the insufficient supply of interceptor missiles. It is critically important that the world – first and foremost the United States and our European partners – come out of the NATO Summit in Ankara with strong decisions in support of our air defence and thus the protection of ordinary people's lives.
As long as Patriot missiles remain in our allies' stockpiles, Russia is only encouraged to keep 'vanquishing' residential buildings. The United States and Europe have enough strength to stop this terror."
Details: Commenting on the likelihood of Russia's next large-scale attack, Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said that the Russians' periods of heightened activity occur, on average, about once every ten days.
However, he stressed that everything depends on Russia's capabilities and whether it decides to hold back weapons for future strikes.
"They may increase the frequency and launch another attack as soon as the next day. We have to be prepared for that possibility. The enemy could repeat such an attack, so air-raid warnings should never be ignored," Ihnat said.
Meanwhile, he emphasised that Russia's capabilities are not unlimited.
"If they had the capacity to strike us every day, they would already be doing so," the Air Force spokesman said.
Background:
On the night of 5-6 July, Russia launched a massive combined attack on Ukraine using strike drones as well as air-, land- and sea-launched missiles of various types. Ukrainian air defences downed 363 of the 419 aerial targets launched. However, 29 ballistic missiles and 18 attack drones struck targets at 34 locations across the country.
While Ukraine's air defences achieved a very high interception rate against Russian cruise missiles and attack drones, they failed to shoot down a single ballistic missile. Ihnat explained why this was happening.
The main strike was directed at Kyiv. As of 10:00, 11 people had been confirmed dead, while nearly 60 others had been injured.
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