Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is making a direct, high-stakes appeal to former President Donald Trump and the U.S. Congress for immediate deliveries of Patriot interceptor missiles and batteries, as Kyiv digs out from one of the heaviest missile and drone barrages of the war. The overnight assault left parts of the capital smoldering, damaged cultural sites and marketplaces, and sent dozens of residents to hospitals. With allied interceptor stocks already stretched, Zelensky cast the request as a life-or-death need for civilians and cities under fire.
In a letter to the White House and Capitol Hill that Reuters said it had seen, Zelensky called for an "immediate replenishment" of Patriot PAC-3 interceptors and other air-defense munitions. "There is hardly anything more painful to see than Patriot batteries with no missiles loaded," he wrote, according to Reuters.
Kyiv was the primary target of the night-long onslaught, which Ukraine's air force said involved roughly 90 missiles and about 600 attack drones. Officials said the strikes damaged the National Art Museum and destroyed the newly renovated Chornobyl museum. Several people were killed and nearly 100 wounded, and city authorities reported damage in multiple neighborhoods as rescuers pulled people from rubble and treated the injured, per the Kyiv Independent.
What Moscow Fired
Ukrainian analysts say the strike package was built to swamp air defenses, combining cruise and ballistic missiles with hypersonic and intermediate-range weapons. A detailed breakdown from Critical Threats (ISW) lists two Kinzhal and three Zircon hypersonic missiles, dozens of cruise and Iskander ballistic missiles, at least one Oreshnik IRBM, and roughly 600 Shahed-type attack drones among the weapons fired.
Why Missiles Matter
Ballistic and hypersonic weapons are among the toughest targets for short-range defenses, which is why PAC-3 Patriot interceptors sit at the center of Kyiv's air-defense plans. Zelensky warned that purchases through NATO's PURL mechanism, financed by European partners, are no longer keeping up with the pace of Russian strikes, a gap he flagged as increasingly dangerous in the letter highlighted by Reuters.
Ukraine's Offer And The Ask
In the same letter, Zelensky said Ukraine is prepared to buy the systems outright if needed and laid out a longer-term proposal for joint Patriot production in Europe under U.S. ownership and oversight. He credited past U.S. military aid decisions, from Javelin anti-tank weapons to HIMARS rocket launchers and F-16 fighter jets, with changing the trajectory of the war, and urged a rapid response to avoid running out of interceptors, according to the full text published by Glavcom.
Allied governments now face an uncomfortable trade-off. Redirecting Patriot batteries and PAC-3 rounds to Ukraine risks creating gaps elsewhere, while leaving Kyiv short of interceptors puts civilians directly in the line of fire. The letter circulated publicly among journalists and Ukrainian outlets on May 26-27, and it remained unclear whether the White House or Congress would authorize faster transfers as the plea landed, according to the Kyiv Independent.
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