Zelensky plans diplomatic changes amid air defense crisis
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President Volodymyr Zelensky said on July 11 that he is preparing changes to Ukraine’s “diplomatic efforts” to accelerate weapons deliveries from allies, as Ukraine's stockpile of Patriot air defense missiles has run dry.
"We need a new quality of engagement with Ukraine’s partners to ensure the implementation of our agreements on weapons supplies," Zelensky said in his evening address. "The agreements reached at the leaders’ level must be implemented much faster and in full."
The comments come as Kyiv's stocks of munitions for U.S.-made Patriot systems — the only air defense system capable of shooting down Russian ballistic missiles — has dried up, leaving civilian neighborhoods and critical infrastructure vulnerable amid an onslaught of devastating Russian strikes.
Zelensky said that the unspecified changes to Ukraine's diplomatic corps would aim to quickly move on the licensed production of Patriot missiles after U.S. President Donald Trump's apparent green light of the initiative at the NATO summit on July 8.
The president added that the changes would also focus on swiftly securing the $80 billion in pledge defense aid for 2026, as well as work on Europe's own domestically-produced anti-ballistic systems.
The president did not comment on which officials would be part of the shuffle or what posts would be impacted. The scale of the anticipated shuffle was not immediately clear.
Ukraine has been sounding the alarm on its air defense shortage for months, but the crisis reached a peak during a Russian mass missile and drone attack against Kyiv and the surrounding region on July 6.
With no reserves of PAC-3 interceptors, Ukraine was unable to stop any of the 23 ballistic missiles and six hypersonic Zircon missiles that Russia launched against the capital. The attack killed at least 26 people and injured dozens of civilians.
A smaller attack on the capital overnight on July 11 injured another 12 people.
Zelensky said on July 9 that Ukraine expects to receive a support package from the U.S. "in the coming days," though he did not specify what it would contain.
