Zelenskyy criticised Europe in Davos because of lack of air defence missiles
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that he had grounds for making his critical statements against Europe after a lack of funding led to a shortage of air defence missiles and the Russians managed to strike the Ukrainian capital's energy infrastructure.
Zelenskyy did not deny that his speech might have seemed too harsh to European capitals and explained this by saying, "We all live in different information environments – Ukraine and the rest of Europe".
The president also acknowledged that this is not only about differences in terms of information, but also about "emotional" differences in the perception of events.
The head of state explained that his speech in Davos was preceded by intense attacks on energy infrastructure when the Russians hit a significant number of targets in Kyiv, and also admitted that he knew in advance that the Armed Forces of Ukraine would not be able to repel this attack.
"For example, here in Ukraine there are Russian attacks on Kyiv's CHP-6, CHP-5, and CHP-4 [combined heat and power plants – ed.], while I know that our air defence batteries that respond to ballistic strikes are empty – simply empty. Imagine this: I know that ballistic missiles are incoming against our energy infrastructure, I know that we have Patriot systems, and I know that there will be no electricity, because there are no missiles to intercept them," he said during a conversation with journalists.
Zelenskyy also said that the reason for the missile shortage was a lack of funding to purchase PAC-3 anti-missile systems, which are capable of intercepting ballistic missiles, from the US.
However, Zelenskyy avoided giving a direct answer when asked to clarify why his criticism was directed specifically at Europe and not the US, even though American missiles are involved.
"The US does not provide us with missiles free of charge. One can view this differently. Europe pays for this, and the tranche under the PURL initiative was not paid. The missiles did not arrive. I am simply stating what is happening. That is why I say that we need to be on the same page both from an emotional and an information point of view, so that everything else can be effective and timely," he added.
The president also stressed that after that, the shortfall was made up, but the anti-missiles arrived two days late.
"PAC-3 missiles arrived a day after we [were] brought to the brink of a blackout," he said.
Earlier, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte called on countries "sitting on interceptor stocks" to transfer these missiles to Ukraine.
Also in January, Norway transferred a significant number of missiles to Ukraine for NASAMS air defence systems.
Zelenskyy has stated that the state of Ukraine's air defence depends on the unity of Europe and the US.