Patriot is not effective in fight against KABs. ATACMS can help, - Zelenskyy
Air defence systems, such as Patriot, are not effective in defending against Russian guided aerial bombs (KABs). Long-range weapons can help by striking airfields where enemy aircraft are stationed, which then drop bombs.
This was stated by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an interview with Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Trudy Rubin, Censor.NET reports.
According to Zelenskyy, air defence systems can help in the fight against enemy KABs. However, this is not effective for two reasons: insufficient production of air defence systems and missiles for them, and their high cost. In particular, the cost of a missile for the Patriot system is about $3 million.
"How can we fight the KABs? Air defence. Yes, this is a fact. Air defence systems. But if we take the cost and number of missiles, for example, Patriot and take KABs, we will not have a thousand (air defence missiles against KABs - ed.) per month. We won't have hundreds of missiles either, because each missile costs about $3 million. You know they don't produce that many of them. That's why Patriot cannot fight against KAB," the head of state said.
The President noted that it is necessary to look for "long-range solutions" against Russian airfields where military aircraft are based, which then attack Ukraine with KABs. Zelenskyy added that it is not only about the territory of the Russian Federation, but also about the temporarily occupied Crimea, which means distances of more than 300 kilometres.
According to Zelenskyy, Ukraine could benefit from long-range ATACMS missiles.
"ATACMS, which can hit 300 kilometres, would probably help us. Today. I want to emphasise - today. When there are airfields where they use their KABs. And the KABs are still flying a long distance. So, we can hit these airfields... That is, today we need to be allowed to use ATACMS deep into the Russian Federation," Zelenskyy said.
He also thanked US President Joe Biden for allowing the Armed Forces to strike the Russian border with US missiles. However, he emphasised the need to hit Russian airfields deep within the territory of the aggressor country.
