Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy implored world leaders to put more pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin, and urged the U.S. to send Ukraine more ballistic missile interceptors in an interview that aired Sunday on CBS News.
Asked by “Face the Nation” anchor Margaret Brennan whether Putin will ever negotiate to end the war, Zelenskyy said that with “more sanctions, more pressure,” Russia will be ready for a dialogue.
Zelenskyy said he’s willing to meet with Putin “if he will be ready.”
“Before the winter, we need to find a way, a diplomatic way, to sit and to speak,” he said.
Ukraine, Zelenskyy said, has seen daily attacks from Russia.
“And two times a week, or two times per 10 days, they have big, massive attacks” with ballistic missiles and other weapons, Zelenskyy said.
The most recent of these was when Russia hit Ukraine with 90 missiles and more than 600 drones last week, including the Oreshnik. Four people died, and dozens were injured across the country.
Even though Ukraine used all the weapons it had, “it was very difficult” to fend off the attack, Zelenskyy said.
Following this, he sent a letter to President Donald Trump and members of Congress, asking for additional Patriot ballistic missile interceptors.
“I hope that they will understand and will answer,” Zelenskyy said. “And this is very important. We need to increase the production.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth addressed this while speaking to reporters at the U.S. Embassy in Singapore on Saturday, saying that the U.S. is changing the way it makes “all those types of important munitions to ensure that our companies are delivering not just a little bit more, but a lot a bit more across the spectrum.”
“Where we can help Ukraine, we have, where we can enable Europe to do more, we have, and I’m encouraged by the European commitment,” Hegseth said. “If you look at the amount of money that’s been spent, Europe has stepped up, and Ukraine has been just as, if not more, effective in the process. So we want them to be able to defend, and we’ll find a way to make sure we can help them do that.”
Zelenskyy called getting these interceptors “the priority for us, and [a] big, big challenge.”
“We had a very difficult, tough winter. Russia attacked us by lots of ballistic missiles on our energy infrastructure, water supply, schools — it was very difficult,” he said.
Now, Ukraine has a “big deficit” in anti-ballistic missiles, Zelenskyy said, attributing this partly to the United States’ war against Iran.
With Russia increasing its internal production of ballistic missiles, Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s deficit of interceptors is a “big problem.”
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