Zelenskyy: Ukraine cannot shoot down missiles with shotguns. We need tanks and aircraft

Alyona Mazurenko - Sunday, 27 March 2022, 00:24

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is calling on international partners to provide Ukraine with the tanks and aircraft needed to free Mariupol, because Ukrainian defenders cannot shoot down Russian missiles with machine guns and shotguns.

Source: Presidential video address

Quote: "Ukraine cannot shoot down Russian missiles with shotguns, with machine guns, of which there are far too many in supply."

"And it is impossible to break the blockade in Mariupol without a sufficient number of tanks, other armoured vehicles and, of course, aircraft. All the defenders of Ukraine know that. All the defenders of Mariupol know that. Thousands of people - citizens, civilians who are dying there in the blockade -  know that."

"The United States knows it. All European politicians know it. We have told everyone. And as many people on earth as possible should know it as soon as possible. So that everyone understands who was simply afraid to prevent this tragedy and why - simply afraid to make a decision."

Details: The President said that Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba and Minister of Defence Oleksiy Kuleba met with their US counterparts in Poland on 26 March. US President Joseph Biden also attended this meeting.

According to Zelenskyy, the talks concerned, among other things, the weapons needed for Ukraine: "[...] while this ping-pong goes on - who should give us aircraft and other means of defence, and how."

The Ukrainian President added that Ukrainian defenders had captured a number of Russian tanks. He stated that the nations of the world will certainly not understand if the battlefield in Ukraine became a larger supplier of tanks to protect freedom in Europe than our partners.