MOSCOW, May 16. /TASS/. Ukraine may lose Kharkov if it does not receive two Patriot systems, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky told ABC in an interview.

"We need two Patriot systems. Russia will not be able to occupy Kharkov if we have those," he said.

Zelensky asked US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at a meeting on Tuesday to provide two Patriot systems to defend Kharkov, but the US diplomat did not give him an unequivocal answer.

"The situation is very serious. We cannot afford to lose Kharkov," Zelensky added.

Earlier, Ukrainian officials admitted that the situation near Kharkov was serious, but claimed that there was no threat of the city's surrender.

On May 14, the Ukrainian General Staff said that the Ukrainian military had been forced to "move to more favorable positions" near the town of Volchansk and the village of Lukyantsy. At the same time, a scandal is developing in Ukraine after a number of Ukrainian soldiers made statements about the complete unpreparedness of the fortification lines in the Kharkov Region and linked this to the failures of the Ukrainian army in this area.