Zelensky Complains About US Stance on Air Defense Missile Supply

MOSCOW, May 26. /TASS/. Vladimir Zelensky has been actively complaining about the United States over a deficit of air defense missiles at Ukraine’s army since the Russian Foreign Ministry warned that Russia’s Armed Forces will be launching systematic strikes on military-industrial production sites in Kiev.

"As regards the protection of the skies, we are in talks with all partners on this matter. Unfortunately, there has been no progress with America for a long time regarding the expansion of anti-ballistic production. We are trying to accelerate this work in Europe - on the production of our own anti-ballistic systems on the continent in sufficient quantities," Zelensky said in a video address released on his Telegram channel. "We will discuss with America further their capabilities to support Ukraine," he pledged.

Zelensky also complained about the United States at a meeting with the Servant of the People faction in the Verkhovna Rada on Monday. Olga Vasilevskaya-Smaglyuk, a Ukrainian legislator, wrote on her Telegram channel that, at the meeting, Zelensky told lawmakers that the American side had been selling "quite limited amounts" of missiles and that he would thus try to work "even harder" in this direction.

The Russian Armed Forces are launching systematic strikes on military-industrial complex facilities in Kiev, including decision-making centers and command posts, as Ukraine’s attack on a school Starobelsk in the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) was "the last straw," the Russian Foreign Ministry warned in a statement. During a phone call with his US counterpart Marco Rubio on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told America’s top diplomat that the Russian Armed Forces were beginning systematic strikes on sites in Kiev used by the armed forces of Ukraine (AFU).