Zelensky pushes NATO for air defense as Russia escalates missile attacks

Volodymyr Zelensky is heading to a NATO summit in Turkey with one clear message: Ukraine needs air defense systems now, and it needs them urgently. The timing couldn’t be more pressing. Russian missiles have rained down on Kyiv twice in less than a week, flattening residential buildings and killing more than 50 civilians. The call for help rings with exceptional intensity.

The Ankara meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday represents a critical window. Beyond NATO discussions, Zelensky plans a crucial meeting with Donald Trump to press home his argument that Russia’s brutal attacks signal weakness, not strength. He wants to convince the former president that Putin should be pressured into peace talks on terms Ukraine can actually stomach.

The missile defense gap

Here’s the stark reality: Ukraine’s air force intercepts almost all drones but fails catastrophically against ballistic missiles. On Monday alone, Ukraine stopped zero ballistic missiles. These weapons fly at several thousand kilometers per hour, making them fiendishly difficult to counter. The US-made Patriot air defense systems Ukraine has simply aren’t enough.

“It is simply absurd that, in today’s world, production has still not been scaled up to the level actually required to protect people from ballistic terror,” Zelensky vented in a video address. He’s now pushing European allies to hand over their own Patriot stockpiles. After all, what good are missiles sitting in storage when civilians are dying now?

But Patriot systems are scarce globally, and even Zelensky admits it’s unclear whether enough exist to defend Ukraine if Russia escalates further. That’s why he’s also floating the idea of Ukraine developing its own equivalents with NATO support.

Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the skies

Yet Ukraine isn’t sitting idle. Its long-range drone campaign against Russia tells a different story. Ukrainian drones have hit oil refineries and military targets deep inside Russian territory, causing significant fuel shortages and power cuts. Moscow’s mayor claimed anti-air defenses intercepted “most” of 430 drones fired at the capital overnight, but Russian social media shows a different picture: massive queues at petrol stations and citizens fighting over limited fuel allocations.

The strikes have reached far beyond Moscow. A confirmed hit on an oil refinery in Omsk, Siberia, sits 2,500 kilometers from Ukraine’s border. That a drone flew undetected for hours reveals just how stretched Russia’s own air defenses have become. Moscow now accuses Kyiv of “terrorism” for these attacks. Zelensky calls it an “influence campaign,” and he’ll share these details with NATO allies.

Crimea’s collapse and Putin’s fragility

Crimea, the peninsula Putin seized in 2014 and views as deeply personal, faces daily Ukrainian drone strikes. Military logistics, oil refineries, power plants: almost everything is under attack. Power cuts, fuel shortages, and food scarcity have created an official state of emergency. One local resident told the BBC the situation feels “catastrophic,” reminiscent of the chaotic 1990s after the USSR collapsed.

This matters immensely. Putin’s central claim to legitimacy rests on “saving” Russia from that 1990s chaos, raising the nation “from its knees.” Now his own war is bringing danger to Moscow itself through drone strikes and widespread fuel rationing. Zelensky will argue this proves Ukraine has shifted the momentum. Victory, he’ll suggest, is achievable through the right combination of military support and diplomatic pressure.

Trump has seemed impressed by Ukraine lately, though he spoke to Putin for 90 minutes this week, giving the Russian leader his chance to shape the narrative first. Kyiv wants this war finished before another brutal winter arrives, ideally through what Zelensky calls “strength or diplomacy.”

But that demands one thing above all else: enough interceptor missiles to protect Ukrainian cities and the civilians inside them. Without adequate air defense, negotiations feel less like peacemaking and more like surrender. Does Ukraine have the leverage to convince its allies that the moment to act decisively is now?

Source: BBC