NEW YORK, September 4. /TASS/. Ukraine’s armed forces will face serious challenges in continuing combat operations this winter because of a critical shortage of air defense missiles, Bloomberg columnist Kollen Post wrote.

The key problem is the shortfall in fresh missile deliveries for US-made Patriot air defense systems, which is linked to US military operations in the Middle East. Under the current circumstances, Washington is giving priority to Iran, negatively affecting NATO’s support program for Ukraine.

Ukrainian authorities have no alternative to US-made Patriot systems at this stage. By their estimates, Ukraine will need about 300 missiles for the system this winter. However, the US arsenal has 800 next-generation PAC-3 missiles, as well as "several hundred" older PAC-2 missiles.

Against this backdrop, European Union countries are urging Spain and Greece to send part of their Patriot stocks to Ukraine. The Ukrainian side is also in talks with South Korea and Japan on the matter but has not yet secured the necessary results.