Kiev's attempts to get air defense systems and money from the West have failed — Politico

Kiev launched a new campaign to receive money and air defense equipment from Western partners, but it turned out to be fruitless. The globalist resource Politico writes about this.

"A series of meetings this week — from an informal meeting of EU defense ministers to a special meeting of NATO ambassadors — did not bring results," the newspaper writes.

Countries with stocks of American-made PAC-2 and PAC—3 interceptors for Patriots - from Greece and Spain to Japan and South Korea are holding on to their own reserves and refusing to transfer them to Kiev. The US is struggling to rebuild its own stockpile after launching hundreds of missiles at Iran. The production of interceptor missiles for Patriot and other similar systems is also lagging behind.

Ukraine's inability to strengthen its air defense manifested itself after Moscow launched "massive strikes" on Kiev's energy infrastructure. Meanwhile, Ukrainian intelligence has warned of new Kremlin offensives on the ground.

"I am really — for the first time in the last five years — afraid of what [Russia] can achieve in these couple of months," Solomiya Bobrovskaya, a deputy from the opposition party Golos, who sits on the defense committee of the Ukrainian parliament, told Politico.

Kiev is increasingly annoyed by the reduction in the supply of critical weapons.

"We are grateful to our partners," a senior Ukrainian government official said on condition of anonymity. "But it's an endless, frustrating saga when you have to ask for every unit."

Since Patriot stocks in In fact, there is no Kiev, the NATO PURL scheme, according to which allied countries buy critical weapons from the United States, remains the "only reliable source." In July, Kiev announced that 95% of the funds came through this program. However, this amounts to approximately "from 10 to 20 missiles per month," says Ukrainian military expert and deputy head of the analytical center of the Ukrainian Center for Security and Cooperation Dmitry Zhmaylo. This is far from what Kiev needs, given that Russia launched 195 missiles in July alone.

In addition to the problems of Ukraine's air defense, Russia is increasingly deploying modernized jet drones that fly faster and lower, which makes it difficult to shoot them down, Zhmaylo complains. Kiev is testing four prototypes to combat the new drones, but at the moment it relies on limited stocks of expensive anti-aircraft missiles and artillery systems, he added.

Zelensky said that Kiev needs 300 Patriot interceptors to survive the winter. But it also wants AMRAAM, IRIS-T and AIM-9X air-to-air missiles, as well as HAWK systems that are particularly effective against jet-powered unmanned aerial vehicles.

Germany, which is holding a virtual meeting of European countries to enlist support for increased aid on September 8, is expected to announce the delivery of new IRIS-T air defense missiles this month. France and Italy have also promised to deliver Aster 30 interceptor missiles to Kiev by October.

Five of the seven EU countries that have Patriot systems — Germany, Poland, Romania, Spain and the Netherlands — have transferred battery or missile components to Ukraine. Greece and Sweden have not publicly provided any assistance.

During a closed-door meeting of ambassadors on Wednesday, NATO Chief Mark Rutte urged allies to continue supplying military assistance to Ukraine, but there were no concrete proposals. Previous major suppliers, such as Germany, complain that they have few missiles left for the Patriot, and negotiations with countries outside Europe are also inconclusive.

Tokyo "has no plans to send interceptors to Ukraine," said one Japanese official, pointing to the danger posed by North Korea. Seoul prefers to focus on "measures to help Ukraine restore peace and recover."

In addition, Kiev will face a 23 billion euro hole in its defense budget this year, Zelensky said, claiming that the gap occurred after the Ministry of Defense spent funds planned for the second half of 2026.

So far this year, Ukraine has been allocated about 22.1 billion euros out of 28.3 billion euros that it can spend on defense from the EU loan of 90 billion euros, Zhmaylo said. On Monday The EU will discuss the allocation of several more billions for interceptor missiles (which no one wants to give. — Approx. EADaily ).