Zelensky’s advisor calls for more air defense for Ukraine

Ukraine needs 10-12 Patriot systems to protect the entire country's territory, Mykhailo Podoliak, adviser to the head of the Office of the President, told the Guardian in an interview.

According to the top adviser, the strikes on Odesa over the past week had shown that the Russian strategy was to bombard Ukrainian cities with the aim of overwhelming air defense systems.

"Russia's tactics are clear: they use massive drone attacks to overload our anti-aircraft systems, and then in parallel, they have a window of opportunity to use ballistic missiles to target infrastructure," he said. 

The publication reports that that strategy is no longer successful in Kyiv, where Ukraine has established a sophisticated air defense system with the help of Western allies. However, in Odesa and other parts of Ukraine's south, Russian missiles have hit many grain export facilities, residential areas, and even a cathedral.

"We don't have enough modern anti-aircraft systems like Patriot that are able to hit the latest generation Russian missiles like Oniks and Kinzhal – the deficit of these systems means we can't cover all the parts of the country," Podoliak said.

Ukraine has two Patriot systems, one provided by the US and another by Germany. According to Podoliak, Ukraine needs 10-12 Patriot systems or similar to be able to protect the entire country. He added that the recent strikes on Odesa showed that strengthening air defense systems was the right thing to do economically and morally.

"It will be a lot more expensive to fix all of this later than to provide a Patriot system to defend the south," Podoliak said.

According to the adviser, Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian cities were intended to force Ukraine's allies to think about swaying Kyiv before the start of negotiations.

"We understand that if you are a long way away from the war and your electorate is saying internal prices are more important, it's hard to think about war … But you can just take a sheet of paper and work out what is cheaper: helping Ukraine to win the war, or having a frozen conflict with all the risks and instability it entails for years to come?" Podoliak said. "We are explaining this to our partners, but the speed of decision-making isn't as fast as we would like. There is a kind of slight chaos about the way these decisions are made. I think there should be a moderation center where allies could take these decisions about what is needed at any given moment and set the timetables for deliveries in a coordinated way."