Last night, Russia launched a massive ballistic missile attack on Ukraine, exploiting Ukraine’s shortage of advanced air defence missiles to slaughter innocent civilians:
Ukraine has sought to license Patriot missiles from the United States for years but has been repeatedly denied. Most recently, U.S. President Donald Trump publicly committed to providing those licenses, only to backtrack. Further, the war in Iran has led to the rapid depletion of Patriot missile supplies and has raised oil prices, helping Russia fund its ongoing brutal invasion of Ukraine. Combined with Trump’s withholding of aid to Ukraine and the failure of Ukraine’s allies to ramp up air defence missile production sufficiently, Ukraine is struggling to protect its cities as Russia targets the innocent:
“Russia has attacked Ukraine with ballistic missiles and drones, killing at least 21 people, as Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said interceptors “could have saved lives”.
Kyiv and the surrounding region experienced the deadliest strikes it had seen this year overnight, with 17 people reported dead. Attacks in Kharkiv and Donetsk also killed one and three people respectively.
Ukraine, who has consistently urged allies for more US-made Patriot missile interceptors to defend against Russian ballistics, has not reported intercepting any of the missiles in the overnight attack.
Zelensky added delays in receiving anti-ballistic systems from partners leads to “horrific casualties and destruction”.
The president later said the supply of interceptors from allies had been “significantly reduced” this year.”
Now is a moment when Ukraine’s allies, including Canada, need to step up. In an upcoming piece on Patreon, I’ll look at what Canada can do to help Ukraine both in the short-term and the long-term.
Spencer Fernando
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