Ukraine has run out of missiles for the US-made Patriot air defense system, leaving it more vulnerable to Russian ballistic missile attacks, a source familiar with the situation told CNN.
The stark development comes amid an increasingly bitter public feud between US President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In recent days, the White House struck a highly criticized deal to import Russian diesel and heaped increasing pressure on Ukraine to halt its strikes on Russia’s oil infrastructure.
Zelenskyy said he felt betrayed by Trump’s deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has since announced Ukraine would continue striking Russian refineries.
For months, Zelenskyy has repeatedly warned that Ukraine is running out of the US-made Patriot interceptor missiles, which are one of the few defensive weapons capable of knocking down a ballistic missile.
But the interceptors are both expensive and in short supply globally, as other countries have burned through their stockpiles or sought to shore up their own defense systems amid the war in Iran.
The source told CNN that “almost all the ballistic missiles from the last strike were not intercepted due to lack of the (interceptor) missiles.”
Russian ballistic missiles hit three power plants in Kyiv and targeted energy infrastructure in Kharkiv during that attack overnight into Wednesday morning. Four people in Kyiv were killed and 25 injured on that day.
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