Minister Reznikov: Ukraine needs to strengthen air defense prior to next winter

It is necessary for Ukraine to strengthen its air defense capabilities prior to the next winter period.

The relevant statement was made by Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov during a nationwide telethon, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

“Today, our task is to accumulate such [aid defense – Ed.] systems. Prior to winter, it is important to strengthen the air defense capabilities, because we need to secure our sky and enable our children to go to school, students to go to universities, doctors to safely provide treatment at hospitals, etc. We must ensure a safe life for our population. This is an important task, and we are dealing with it,” Reznikov told.

In his words, it is essential to protect not only Ukraine’s capital city, Kyiv, but all big cities, such as Kharkiv, Dnipro, Odesa, Lviv, Zaporizhzhia, and others.

According to Reznikov, Ukraine has already solved all the core tasks related to the supply of a certain type of weapons and should focus on obtaining the necessary number of air defense systems and other means required for the protection of its sky.

“Now we are speaking not of a principled decision regarding a certain system but of the number of those systems that will be equipped with missiles. These are also systems of radars, interception, situational awareness, etc.,” Reznikov explained.

In addition to the supply of air defense systems, Ukraine is constantly raising the issue of maintaining the combat condition of such systems, namely in terms of providing spare parts, maintenance and repair works, Reznikov noted.