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President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged Trump and the US Congress to help Ukraine with air defense systems and interceptors in a letter following Russia’s ballistic missile attacks, according to a Reuters report. Zelenskyy said ballistic missiles are Russia’s “last major force” on the battlefield.
The US Patriot system is one of the world’s best air defense systems, widely effective against aerial threats. Ukraine’s only hope for shooting down Russian ballistic missiles is the US-built interceptors for the Patriot system. Kyiv has been short of interceptors throughout its four-year war with Russia. But the US-Iran war threatens to make these interceptors even more scarce.
Russia launched its latest massive missile attack on Ukraine on Sunday, killing four people and wounding nearly 100, according to Ukrainian officials. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s air force said Russia had used 30 ballistic missiles against Ukraine, only 11 of which were shot down.
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Zelenskyy also claimed that Russia fired two nuclear-capable medium-range ballistic missiles, called Oreshnik, in the attack. One of the missiles hit the Kyiv region, while the other landed in the temporarily occupied territory of the Donetsk region.
In the letter, Zelenskyy outlined Ukraine’s success in preventing full-scale Russian aggression and expressed gratitude for US support.
Reuters’s reporting contributed to this article.
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