KYIV, Sept 8 (Reuters) – Ukraine is contracting a supply of around 1,000 missiles for U.S.-designed Patriot air-defence systems with the help of allies and through a European Union loan, Kyiv’s defence minister said on Tuesday.
Speaking at a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, Yevhenii Khmara also said that the majority of the missiles would only be shipped in the coming years, and called for more urgent aid.
In comments posted later by the Defence Ministry, Khmara said Ukraine was asking its Western partners to provide more air defence missiles from their stocks in exchange for improvements in missile performance under contracts signed with Kyiv.
He said Ukraine was being hindered by a shortfall of $27 billion in financing for drone supplies.
The ministry’s summary of the meeting said Khmara had presented a plan for Ukraine’s conduct of the war that was already being implemented along with a list of what Kyiv considered to be the biggest threats posed by Moscow.
Khmara said Russia was making no strategic gains along the 1,200-km (750-mile) front line, but Moscow was making up for its battlefield failures with “terror against Ukrainians”.
Russia resumed its near-constant drone and missile attacks on Kyiv on Tuesday after a brief halt for the visit of U.S. peace negotiators. Officials said five people were killed in the capital along with others in various regions.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte told the meeting that Ukraine’s allies had no choice but to boost their support to enable Kyiv “to seize the opportunities it is creating now across all fronts and to defend itself in the skies”.
(Reporting by Dan Peleschuk and Anna Pruchnicka; Editing by Tomasz Janowski, Ron Popeski and Bill Berkrot)
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