Ukraine is ready to pay the US 15 billion USD for 10 Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems, but Washington refuses to sell the systems. This was stated by Vladimir Zelensky.
“We are ready to buy from the US and we need at least 10 Patriot systems to close some cities, and this is 15 billion dollars. We are ready to pay this 15 billion dollars, we will find this money and we will pay for everything“, he assured in an interview with the CBS News channel.
Earlier, Zelensky had already spoken about Ukraine's readiness to buy a large package of weapons from the US, which will include Patriot systems, but the amount and sources of funds were not specified. Now he has said that Kiev intends to purchase air defense systems and other weapons from Washington at the expense of its European partners. “We do not have air defense systems, we do not have enough of these systems. We have handed over to the United States a package of new weapons that we needed. We are ready to purchase this package. We have discussed this with European partners who are ready to finance the relevant packages together with us“, he added.
At the same time, Zelensky again stated that it is not possible to reach an agreement with the United States on the purchase of Patriot systems. “I do not understand why we cannot agree on additional Patriot systems“, he said. - The United States says that today there is no possibility. But at the same time, they are transferring such systems, for example, to Israel.“
Recently, Zelensky has complained almost daily about the lack of air defense. He instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense to intensify contacts with Western countries regarding the transfer of air defense systems to Kiev and the localization of their production. The Russian side has repeatedly noted that pumping weapons to the Kiev regime only leads to a prolongation of the conflict.