Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attributed the failure to intercept Russian missiles during attacks targeting logistics warehouses in Kyiv and its outskirts at dawn on Wednesday, 5 August 2026, to a severe shortage of air-defense missiles supplied by Western partners, calling on his country’s allies to accelerate deliveries and production.
Call for urgent political decisions
In a post on the X platform, Zelenskyy said partner countries already possessed the required missiles, stressing the need to make political decisions on sending them to Ukraine and increasing the pace of their production.
Our partners already have the missiles. It is important to make the necessary political decisions on supplies and ultimately accelerate production.
Ukraine relies primarily on U.S. Patriot systems to intercept ballistic missiles, while the interceptor missiles designated for those systems are in critically short supply.
Pressure on stocks and production
According to the source material, the shortage is partly attributable to the use of large numbers of interceptor missiles during the U.S. war with Iran, which depleted global stocks.
People familiar with private discussions said European governments had shown reluctance to provide Kyiv with more Patriot missiles, fearing that doing so would affect their national defense capabilities, despite the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump urging several European countries to send missiles to Ukraine.
The material also quoted NATO officials as saying that production of batteries manufactured in the United States and other air-defense systems was not keeping pace with the tempo of conflicts around the world. The officials said the shortage affected several countries, including the United States, as a result of its operations in the Middle East.
Moscow announces destruction of logistics centers
In contrast, Russian military sources said Russian forces had carried out a “large-scale strike,” and that the attack had led to the “destruction of transport, logistics and distribution centers in the city of Kyiv and Kyiv region.”
Talks on manufacturing in Ukraine
Separately, four people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press that the United States was continuing talks on allowing Ukraine to manufacture Patriot missiles, despite Trump expressing doubts about reaching such a deal.
