Zelensky reveals the number of interceptors he is receiving from Trump: twelve a month. There are at least 150 Russian missiles

Kyiv. During a meeting with journalists in his office on 27 October – which was also attended by Il Foglio – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed for the first time how many missiles for the American Patriot systems, capable of shooting down Russian ballistic missiles, Ukraine receives each month: just twelve. “Now that the year is drawing to a close, I can speak openly about it,” said the president. In his view, the main reason lies in the Middle East: “Just imagine: we can count on 150 missiles a year, but we need to shoot down 150 ballistic missiles a month.” He then recalls his conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump in New York on 22 September 2026, when he asked him to provide Ukraine with a “winter package”. “I told him how many missiles we needed and that, if they gave them to us, we wouldn’t strike the oil refineries,” says Zelensky. Trump asked him where they could be found, and Zelensky pointed out which countries had them.

Since then, however, much has changed. The United States and Russia have concluded a ‘diesel deal’ and Trump has begun to say that Ukraine needs a new leader. Zelensky has strongly criticised the ‘diesel deal’ and has highlighted problems with the Americans’ sharing of intelligence and the slowdown in the Starshield/SpaceX system, used for frontline communications. According to Il Foglio, European leaders—just as they did last year following the row at the White House between Trump and Zelensky—have once again advised the Ukrainian president to tone down his public attacks on Trump. “As for my rhetoric: if you speak about something or someone with too much caution, it takes a long time to achieve a result,” explains Zelensky. He had no time, however, because many negative factors had suddenly come to a head. “Home Alone 2”, he predicted at the time. That is why the Ukrainian leader decided not to remain silent, and the decision had some effect: the United States resumed providing intelligence data and Starshield’s speed returned to normal. As for the suggestion that Trump would like to see someone else in his place, Zelensky remains calm. “President Trump can say whatever he likes about me personally, but not about Ukraine,” he states, emphasising that relations between them remain constructive nonetheless. “But that doesn’t mean that destructive actions can be ignored behind a façade of constructive dialogue,” he adds.

As for the negotiation process, the next step is a trilateral meeting between technical teams from Ukraine, Russia and the United States in Abu Dhabi. It is scheduled for November, and the final date depends on the Americans. According to Zelensky, the leaders of Finland and Norway, in their conversation with Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, outlined the issues Ukraine wishes to discuss: de-escalation measures regarding energy and maritime matters, prisoner exchanges, and the format of a possible trilateral summit involving the leaders of Ukraine, the United States and Russia. “This is our agenda, the one we have discussed with our American partners,” says Zelensky. When it comes to discussing security guarantees and economic reconstruction, he believes it will be necessary to involve Europe. Territorial issues, on the other hand, can only be discussed by the leaders of the countries at war (Putin and Zelensky): “No one else has the authority to do so.”

Zelensky would like the Abu Dhabi meeting to take place before the one between Trump, Putin and Xi Jinping. “I wouldn’t want it to be a redistribution of spheres of influence,” he says. In his view, following the talks in Alaska between the United States and Russia, this would be the second diplomatic advantage for Moscow. He is convinced that Russia is looking forward to that meeting more than anyone else. “I simply cannot see what benefit China would derive from it,” says Zelensky. And despite the clear rapprochement between Washington and Moscow, the Ukrainian president is certain that nothing has changed in the Kremlin’s worldview. “Russia is certainly not an ally of the United States,” he points out.