Bolstering Ukraine's air defenses to be key topic of NATO-Ukraine Council meeting

The key topic of a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council on January 10 will be the strengthening of Ukrainian air and missile defense systems.

Yehor Cherniev, deputy head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence and head of the Ukrainian delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, told this in a comment to Ukrinform.

"The key topic of the NATO-Ukraine Council meeting will be the bolstering of our air defense and missile defense after recent massive strikes. Repelling the attack, we had to spend a considerable amount of air defense missiles, and these stocks need to be replenished," he said.

Cherniev noted that Ukrainian forces sometimes use several air defense missiles to intercept one Russian missile, especially if an attack is massive. Therefore, according to him, for the effective defense of Ukrainian cities from the air, Ukraine needs thousands of air defense missiles.

"In addition, we need additional systems, such as Patriots, to protect our cities from ballistic missiles. This problem is urgent, and that is why the meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council was convened so quickly. We hope for positive results," he said.

From December 29 to January 2, Russia used almost 300 missiles and more than 200 Shahed one-way suicide drones for attacks on Ukraine.