Europe must have its own defense system against ballistic weapons, and Ukraine is already holding talks with several countries on its creation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday.
Defense against ballistic missiles is one of Ukraine’s biggest challenges in the war with Russia, since only certain types of missiles used by the American Patriot system are capable of intercepting Russian ballistic missiles.
Russia uses ballistic missiles to attack Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, destroying thermal power generation and electricity transmission systems.
“I believe, and my idea is that we should have a European anti-ballistic missile defense system. We are in talks with several countries and are working in this direction,” Zelenskiy told the national TV channel, Marathon.
“We need to build our own anti-ballistic missile defense system within a year,” he added.
Zelenskiy said the task is extremely difficult but realistic, and added that he had already discussed it with key European countries, though he did not name them.