NEW YORK, June 13. /TASS/. Ukraine cannot cope with massive Russian ballistic-missile attacks due to the shortage of Patriot missile interceptors, The New York Times said.
Their production takes a long time, The New York Times wrote, adding that last year Lockheed Martin produced 620 missiles for the Patriot PAC-3 air defense system. But demand for them skyrocketed, especially from the Persian Gulf countries, after the conflict in the Middle East flared.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin, at a meeting organized by TASS with the heads of the world's leading news agencies, pointed out that Russia has an air defense system, while Ukraine has only its individual elements. Putin stressed that Kiev has Patriot air defense systems, which are also sorely lacking, but "the system as such does not exist.".