Despite Ukraine’s impressive military performance against Russia in recent months, Putin thinks he will win his war of aggression because of Kyiv’s shortage of missile interceptors. The U.S. and our NATO allies can—and must—stop this impending disaster.
Ukraine does indeed face an air defense crisis. In July, Russia launched a record number of missiles and drones at Ukrainian territory. Most ominously, it sent 198 deadly ballistic and hypersonic missiles. President Zelensky reported in early August that even as Russian strikes are growing Ukraine received only a third as many interceptors this year as it did in the same period in 2025.
The strain shows across every layer of Ukraine’s defenses. Patriot batteries—the only system that reliably stops ballistic missiles—are running low on interceptors. Ukraine’s small F-16 fleet, just 39 jets against a promised 79, has been forced to burn through flying hours intercepting cheap Shahed drones, a task that should instead be done by ground-based systems. And Russia is adapting: Jet-powered Shaheds now fly too fast for many interceptor drones to catch.
Russia is quickly stepping up production of the kind of ballistic and cruise missiles that can dangerously exploit Ukraine’s shortage of interceptor missiles. Moscow has two big goals: launching more ballistic missiles against Ukrainian facilities to cripple Kyiv’s ability to make its own ballistic missiles; targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure to deprive the country of heating and electricity in the coming winter. Putin figures such a mass deprivation will break Ukraine’s will to fight and soften it up for a capitulation to the Kremlin. Hospitals, railroads, schools and commercial businesses are also targets.
Ukraine’s defense minister has laid out a specific ask: ten additional Patriot systems, missiles for Patriot and other types of systems, as well as $6 billion for drone production—including cheap interceptor drones purpose-built to counter Shahed swarms.
The U.S. should immediately prioritize interceptor deliveries and accelerate Patriot missile production lines, specifically for Ukraine. Simultaneously, we should urgently boost overall output.
Not long ago, President Trump said Ukraine would be licensed to manufacture its own Patriot missile system and interceptors. Then he backed off. The President should keep his original promise and allow Ukraine to build interceptors domestically rather than depend entirely on shipments from abroad.
Washington should immediately send 50 or more F16s to Ukraine to help defend against the coming Russian winter air offensive. That should be easy. The U.S. has more than 800 F16s. NATO should also kick in 30 or more of these aircraft from its current stockpiles. In addition to those F16s, such European countries as Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Germany should transfer some of their stocks of other missile systems to Ukraine. Europe should also fund the $70 billion partner package Kyiv has requested for 2026. Coordinated, predictable funding matters as much as the hardware itself; Ukraine’s leadership has repeatedly said unpredictable delivery schedules are as damaging as shortages.
The declining interceptor supply along with the rising volume in Russian strikes will severely strain Ukraine’s civilian population this winter. Effective action is required now. What American isolationists and the pro-Putin chorus don’t grasp is that Ukraine’s defense is ultimately our defense.