Russia Taking Advantage of Shortage of US Interceptor Missiles to Attack Ukraine

On Monday night, Russia launched a large-scale attack on cities across Ukraine, reportedly killing at least 22 people in one of its largest assaults on the country in months.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that Russia had launched 656 drones and 73 missiles overnight, with the heaviest strikes reported in Kyiv and the city of Dnipro. Tens of thousands of residents took shelter in Kyiv’s subway system during the nighttime raid.

“We urgently need help from the United States in supplying missiles for Patriot systems,” Zelenskyy said, repeating a request he made to President Donald Trump in a letter at the end of May.

Last week, Russia threatened “sustained strikes” on Kyiv after escalating its attacks on Ukraine throughout May.

Russia is likely taking advantage of a global shortage of air defense interceptor missiles as it escalates its attacks on Ukraine.

In particular, there are shortages of the Patriot system interceptor missiles, made by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, which are effective against Russian missiles. The U.S. and Gulf allies have been using Patriot defense systems to shoot down Iranian missiles throughout the war.

The shortage also affects High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) munitions, which have been used by the U.S. in its military bases in Kuwait and Bahrain during the war, and are also used by Ukraine.

Ukraine was already facing a shortage of U.S.-made Patriot missiles before the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, but the war has made that shortage more severe.

In April, The Hill reported that the U.S. military used nearly half its Patriot missile interceptors in its war on Iran.

In March, Zelenskyy noted that the U.S. had used over 800 Patriot missiles in just three days of the war on Iran — and that this was more than Ukraine had received from the U.S. throughout the entire Russian war on Ukraine since February 2022.

“Ukraine has never had this many missiles to repel attacks. More than 800 have been used over the past three days alone,” he said.

By May, internal Defense Department reports showed that the U.S. had used more than 1300 Patriot interceptor missiles during the war, and that the military had depleted much of its stockpiles of Tomahawks, Patriots, and other munitions that could take years to replenish. Kuwait, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates have collectively fired about 600 Patriot interceptor missiles throughout the war on Iran — together expending three years’ worth of missiles, as the U.S. produces about 600 of these missiles each year.

In early May, the Trump administration sold an additional $17 billion in defense interceptor missiles to Kuwait, the UAE, and Bahrain.

The U.S. has also used other missile defense systems such as THAAD to defend Israel throughout the war, using more of its own missiles to defend Israel than Israel has used itself.

Since the start of his second term, Trump has also ceased direct weapons transfers to Ukraine, so Zelenskyy’s European allies have been buying the defense interceptors from the U.S. before sending them to Ukraine.