Zelensky asks Trump for more US air defence help against Russian missile attacks

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked US President Donald Trump and Congress for more American-made air defence ammunition to counter intensifying Russian ballistic missile attacks, Kyiv said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Russian MPs have backed a draft Bill to have bank employees join the fight against Ukraine’s long-range drones that strike deep inside Russia – with trained bank staff shooting down the unmanned aircraft.

There has been a recent escalation in aerial attacks by both sides in the more than four-year war that followed Russia’s all-out invasion of its neighbour.

Neither side has been able to make much progress on the 780-mile front line.

On Wednesday, Anne Keast-Butler, head of the UK’s intelligence agency GCHQ, said that Russian President Vladimir “Putin is going backwards on the battlefield”.

To everyone fighting for Ukraine in the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine – thank you for your service to our state, for your extraordinary courage, and for the strong results you deliver every day!

The Special Operations Forces have gone through all the… pic.twitter.com/LYxcGV6DbR

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) May 27, 2026

New data shows that “almost half a million Russian soldiers have now been killed since the conflict began”, she said.

Ukraine has pounded Russian targets, especially oil facilities and manufacturing plants, with its domestically produced drones.

At the same time, the Russian military has intensified its aerial attacks, firing almost 90 missiles as well as hundreds of drones at Kyiv last weekend in an effort to overwhelm air defences.

Mr Zelensky urged Mr Trump and Congress in a letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press, to supply more Patriot PAC-3 missiles and other air defence systems, warning that deliveries to Ukraine were falling dangerously short as the Iran war diverts US stocks.

Ukraine has raised its drone interception rate to more than 90%, the letter says, and Ukrainian specialists have helped countries in the Middle East – specifically the Gulf Arab region – strengthen air defences.

They have also helped at American military bases in the Middle East , the letter says.

But Ukraine cannot yet produce its own anti-missile defence systems, Mr Zelensky said, and for that relies “almost exclusively on the United States”.

For us – for a nation fighting for its survival – there is hardly anything more painful to see than Patriot batteries with no missiles loaded

“For us – for a nation fighting for its survival – there is hardly anything more painful to see than Patriot batteries with no missiles loaded,” Mr Zelensky wrote.

Deliveries, he says, are “no longer keeping up with the reality of the threat we face”.

The US weapons that European nations and Canada buy to donate to Ukraine are a vital component of the country’s air defences, but only a few Nato allies are investing significant sums in the arrangement, alliance officials say.

The ambitious plan approved by Russia’s lower house of parliament envisages banks installing electronic jamming systems on their premises while selected employees would be trained to shoot down incoming drones.

And with banks in almost every town, their incorporation into Russia’s air defences could help expand its cover.

The Bill, which state news agency Interfax said was first presented last August and later expanded in scope, must still be approved by the upper house Federation Council and signed by Mr Putin before coming into force.

Russia is finding it hard to protect its large land mass from a growing number of attacks by increasingly sophisticated Ukrainian long-range drones.

Smaller drones are also holding back Russian troops along the front line, western analysts and officials say.

As the intensity and depth of Ukrainian drone attacks have increased, Russian authorities have encouraged businesses to contribute to protective measures against aerial strikes.

Russian banks are not known to have been a prime target for Ukrainian drones in the war that followed Moscow’s 2022 invasion.

The plan encompasses Russia’s central bank and other top institutions, including majority state-owned Sberbank.

With Mr Putin keen to shield Russians from the war, the plan could work against his efforts by involving regular citizens in it and making the consequences of the invasion more visible.