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To protect against ballistic missile attacks, Ukraine needs Patriot air defense systems and other air defense systems. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly stated the need for additional installations. According to him, 5-7 Patriot air defense systems can protect industrial platforms in Ukraine. However, so far Western partners have been slow to transfer the systems. This is influenced by a number of factors. In particular, residual fear of escalation from the Russian Federation. This opinion was voiced on the FREEDOM TV channel by Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine (OPU).
“It seems to European countries, especially in Eastern and Northern Europe, that literally tomorrow Russia will attack them with missiles. Including the same ballistic, hypersonic ones that attacked Ukraine. Our partner countries still experience internal fear, so the logic is this: let’s just let Patriot stand with us,” the speaker noted.
The second component, according to him, is the residual effect of a certain phenomenon called “war escalation.”
“Partners still think that if we transfer something to Kyiv in large quantities, this will contribute to the escalation of the war, its scaling. In fact, everything looks the other way around. The slower supplies go to Ukraine, the faster this escalation occurs. Because Russia always thinks primitively, they say, just a little more, and we will press on, a little more, and we will break it, destroy the pro-Ukrainian coalition, and win this war. Or at least we won’t lose. And this incorrect emphasis, according to the type that transferring something to Ukraine in a larger volume will contribute to escalation, unfortunately, continues to operate,” Podolyak said.
Another reason, according to the adviser to the head of the OPU, is that some countries continue to think that Russia must be taken into account.
“There is still an attitude that Russia is a large military country and must be taken into account. Still, she has her own interests. Yes, they run counter to the interests of democratic communities, but, nevertheless, we agreed on some kind of security construct. And let’s continue to somehow try to negotiate and the like. That is, this general pro-Russian fear can still be heard,” the guest of the broadcast noted.
Also, the situation with the supply of military aid to Ukraine is still influenced by the work of the pro-Russian lobby, Podolyak believes.
“This is not always direct agency work; often “useful idiots” can work for this. Plus, there are different parties – ultra-left, ultra-right, which are trying to passionately influence the electoral environment, cause certain attitudes towards the war, provoke this fatigue. They continue to say that the war is big, we are tired of it. And if we complete it, then everything will look different, prices will not rise. These are quite primitive theses, which, unfortunately, very often find their way into electoral circles,” the speaker emphasized.
Podolyak also noted that Ukraine’s partners no longer perceive Russian attacks on Ukraine as something out of the ordinary, because this happens every day. The shock of the start of the war has passed.
“It is important to take into account the psycho-emotional parameter. The shock has passed from the fact that Russia is using a genocidal component, deliberately attacking the civilian population with cruise and ballistic missiles. There is a certain addiction, as paradoxical as it may sound, addiction to death. And our partners see, they say, they were attacked with missiles again. But this also happened yesterday, the day before yesterday. We’re used to it. There is nothing new in this. This all affects the fact that, well, let’s discuss it a little more,” Podolyak noted.
He believes that despite all these factors, partners will still transfer the necessary air defense systems to Ukraine.
“Closed skies is the main concept in this war, it must be implemented. Unfortunately, this is not being done as quickly as we would like. But at different levels, including the President of Ukraine, this topic is constantly raised. Moreover, it is raised in a logically reasoned manner,” Podolyak concluded.
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Earlier, President Zelenskyy said that Ukraine needs 25 Patriot air defense systems to completely cover the sky from Russian missile attacks.
