The Race for 1,000 Patriot Missiles: Ukraine Appeals to Allies Before Stocks Run Out
Ukraine is racing against time to finalize contracts for the purchase of around 1,000 missiles for U.S.-designed Patriot air defense systems, with the support of its allies and through a loan from the European Union, according to Defense Minister Yevhen Khmara.
Speaking on Tuesday during a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, Khmara said that most of these missiles would not be delivered for several years, while also calling for urgent assistance to strengthen Ukraine’s air defenses.
Request for Missiles From Western Stockpiles
The Ukrainian defense minister explained that Kyiv is asking its Western partners to provide additional air defense missiles from their stockpiles in exchange for improved missile performance under contracts signed with Ukraine.
According to Khmara, Kyiv is also facing other financial challenges, including a $27 billion funding gap for drone supplies.
Russia Continues Its Attacks
The minister’s remarks came as Russia resumed its near-continuous drone and missile attacks on Kyiv on Tuesday, following a brief pause linked to the visit of U.S. negotiators.
Officials said that five people were killed in the capital, in addition to others who died in different regions.
The Patriot missile crisis had previously become clearly apparent in Ukraine after a CNN investigation published in August revealed that some Patriot systems had run out of interceptor missiles despite continued Russian ballistic missile attacks.
CNN reported at the time that one system near Kyiv had not fired a missile for six weeks because its ammunition had been depleted. An engineer working on the system said that having the equipment without missiles capable of intercepting ballistic missiles was “extremely painful.”
A Gap Between Production and Demand
Information published by CNN in August pointed to a gap between Patriot missile production and the scale of demand. Lockheed Martin produced around 620 missiles in 2025, while the U.S. Department of Defense had signed a seven-year agreement aimed at increasing production to approximately 2,000 missiles annually by 2030.
Kyiv has also sought to manufacture Patriot missiles domestically. However, a White House official said at the time that no decision had been made and no guarantees had been provided regarding permission to produce them in Ukraine, while emphasizing the need to protect U.S. technology.
Additional Support for Ukraine
During the meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said that Ukraine’s allies had no choice but to strengthen their support so that Kyiv could seize the opportunities available to it and defend itself against aerial attacks.
For his part, Khmara said that Russia was making no strategic gains along the 1,200-kilometer front line, but accused Moscow of compensating for its failures on the battlefield by “terrorizing Ukrainians.”
Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense added that Khmara presented, during the meeting, a war management plan that is already being implemented, along with a list of what Kyiv considers to be the main threats posed by Moscow.
