"Ukraine needs 25 Patriot air defense systems that could protect our cities from enemy attacks," Illia Yevlash said, as cited by Ukrainian state news agency Ukrinform.
He added that Ukraine also needs "many other assets" to protect its airspace, including "portable systems that are used by mobile fire groups," Ukrinform reported.
Yevlash told reporters that Ukraine needs to develop "a whole deeply echeloned air defense system that will include short-, medium- and long-range air defense equipment with the support of fighter aircraft."
He said, as quoted by Ukrinform: "If we talk about small systems, then these are air defense systems mainly of the Ground Forces, such as Crotale, Avenger, Gepard, which have proven themselves quite effective."
He added: "There was talk of the transfer of Skynex systems to our country - these are so-called drone fighters. These are medium-range systems such as IRIS-T, NASAMS and other assets that will allow us to protect cities and destroy missiles and drones. And there are long-range Patriot and SAMP/T systems."
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, starting the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War II.
Thursday is day 778 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
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Source: ukrinform.net