Zelensky says Ukraine’s air defence supplies ‘insufficient’

BBC:

President Zelensky has called Ukraine’s air defence supplies “insufficient”, having revealed several systems were “without missiles” until Friday morning.

“I can say this openly because today I have those missiles,” the president said, adding that Ukraine had received a “substantial package” earlier in the day.

His comments follow days of intense Russian bombardment of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, leaving thousands of people without heating and electricity during a bitterly cold winter.

Schools in Kyiv will shut until February, the capital’s mayor has announced, as the city continues to face severe energy shortages amid temperatures which have dropped as low as -19C.

Zelensky called on Ukraine’s allies to provide “rapid deliveries” of available missiles, and said shipments did not mean “that winter will end for us tomorrow”.

“And it doesn’t mean that tomorrow the enemy will stop bombing us,” he wrote on social media.

Ukraine relies on its Western partners for several vital air defence systems, which Zelensky said required “constant supplies of missiles”.

“Securing these packages takes enormous effort, blood, and human lives.”

He criticised countries that “stockpiled” such ammunition: “If we are at war, we really need it. And in some countries, there is no war.”

On Friday evening, he said Ukraine had “intelligence information” that Russia was preparing for large-scale strikes.

“Supplies are insufficient,” he wrote on Telegram. “We are trying to speed things up, and it is important that our partners hear us.”