Russia currently has up to 700 ballistic missiles in reserve and is producing between 130 and 140 more each month, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Zelensky gave the estimate while speaking to journalists in Kyiv alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
“According to our data, Russia has a stockpile of up to 700 ballistic missiles and several thousand other missiles. This is the information we have about their reserves,” Zelensky said.
The Ukrainian president said Russia’s continued missile production remains a major challenge for Ukraine’s air defence and argued that production facilities should remain a target of Ukrainian long-range operations.
“We have to fight this, and we are fighting it. These are the places where they produce them. These are our long-range sanctions,” Zelensky said, using a phrase he has previously employed to describe Ukrainian strikes on military and defence-industrial targets inside Russia.
He also called on Ukraine’s international partners to increase economic sanctions against Russia.
Zelensky argued that Moscow is deliberately increasing military pressure ahead of possible talks with the United States in an attempt to strengthen its negotiating position.
“In my view, he [Vladimir Putin] is deliberately escalating everything as much as possible so that Ukraine responds, so that he can continue escalating and raise the stakes as much as possible before any conversation with the Americans,” Zelensky said.
According to Zelensky, Russia is intensifying its aerial attacks because it lacks sufficient forces to achieve its objectives on the ground.
He said Ukraine’s response should combine stronger air defence and efforts to intercept Russian
