Sell Ukraine 10% of US Patriots and ‘we will destroy all the Russians’ ballistic missiles,’ Zelensky tells CNN

By Nick Paton Walsh, Natalie Wright, Daria Tarasova-Markina, Victoria Butenko, CNN

Kyiv (CNN) — Ukraine has only a tenth of the interceptor missiles it urgently needs from the United States to stop surging Russian ballistic missile attacks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told CNN in an interview, adding his days are spent in “millions” of phone calls, in opaque deal-making with allies for more.

Russian ballistic attacks have risen fast in recent weeks, hitting the capital Kyiv particularly hard, as Moscow exploits Ukraine’s near-zero stocks of Patriot interceptor missiles. Zelensky said a tenth of the US current stockpile would be enough to stop all Russian ballistic missile attacks, but five per cent would be enough to get Ukraine through the winter.

“This year we have two and a half times less interceptors than we had in 2025,” he said. “Russia has two times more ballistic missiles per month than they had before.” July was the deadliest month for Ukrainian civilians since April 2022, according to the United Nations. “Each night you have attacks, and four or five times per month we have massive attacks … terrible nights. Very heroic, very resilient people really. But they (are) tired.”

He added that if the US “sell us 5%, we will go through the winter and save people’s lives. If they can sell us 10%, we will destroy all the Russians’ ballistic missiles. I have 1%.”

There is a global shortage of the missiles due to the US war with Iran, where the US and Gulf states used dozens to tackle Iranian missile and low-cost drone attacks. The shortage is costing Ukraine most acutely, where cities some nights appear defenseless to Moscow’s rocket assaults.

Zelensky gave a rare window into his personal efforts daily to secure more interceptors, that involved deal-making he preferred to keep private. “This is what I live each day: from 1% to 5%. I have some months, and million phone calls … I try to exchange something to missiles … I do some things which I can’t even share. It doesn’t mean that it’s outside of the law. But I can’t speak about it.”

Zelensky said there were still doubts about how President Donald Trump’s apparent commitment to letting Ukraine build its own Patriot interceptor missiles would come to fruition.

Trump, on the sidelines of the NATO Ankara summit, said he would permit Ukraine to get a license to manufacture the complex interceptors themselves, but days later said he was unsure of the idea. The manufacturers of the Patriot missile systems have sent officials to Kyiv to discuss the idea, but results remain elusive.

“I hope that I will get it,” Zelensky said. “I don’t have now 5% and I don’t have such an acceptance. And this is for me is a big challenge, one of the biggest I had from the very beginning of this war.”

Zelensky said he was beseeching the White House directly, through calls, messages and indirectly through allies, to boost their Patriot assistance. But he was otherwise reluctant to provide details on his recent interactions with the Trump administration.

He confirmed he held a phone call with Vice President JD Vance recently, but declined to detail, as reported by the Financial Times, whether Vance requested Ukraine stop attacks on a Russian oil port in the Black Sea that were harming US companies and risking a surge in global energy prices.

Kyiv has also presented new proposals for the Trump-led peace process that has appeared moribund in recent months. Zelensky declined to provide details but said: “We need more involvement of the American side to the peace plan. I’m thankful to the team of President Trump that they want to continue. (Russian President Vladimir) Putin doesn’t want to stop this war now and (there’s) not enough pressure on him now.”

He also rejected the idea of Ukraine conceding the remaining territory in the Donbass that Putin seeks to conquer, saying that security guarantees remained key for Kyiv.

“Russia begins to speak about this war, and they speak about territory. The key question is why he will not come again with 1 or 2 additional million soldiers after a big pause. Why he will not come again to occupy us?”

Zelensky added he agreed with some Western assessments that Putin may seek to escalate the war against NATO, possibly attacking the smaller NATO Baltic states.

“He doesn’t know how to end this war without big occupation or big victory for his society. It’s more simple to find some smaller country … for him, it will not be important if this country is in NATO or not in NATO. He wants quick victory, 100% sure that he will win, occupy or destroy or control.”

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