by DAVID AXE
On Oct. 16, the Ukrainian air force fired the last handful of Patriot surface-to-air missiles in its inventory, shooting down four Russian ballistic missiles.
But other missiles got through, damaging power plants and homes in Kyiv and Kharkiv and killing four people.
It wasn’t the first time Ukraine had run out of Patriots. But as Russia’s wider war on Ukraine grinds into its 57th month, it’s now normal for Ukraine to have zero missiles for its roughly eight Patriot batteries.
That’s finally set to change. But not fast enough to save Ukraine from a very hard winter—one where Russia can, practically at will, turn off Ukraine’s electricity and freeze its people.
On Oct. 31, the U.S. State Department approved the sale of 500 PAC-3 missiles to Ukraine for its Patriot batteries. The $2.1-billion purchase, financed by Ukraine’s European allies, comes amid a global shortage of Patriot missiles resulting from high expenditures in the U.S.-led war on Iran.
But the Iran war isn’t the only factor. As his domestic popularity wanes and midterm elections loom, U.S. Pres. Donald Trump has become even more erratic, more authoritarian and more friendly toward Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin.
Raging against Ukraine for daring to defend itself against Russian aggression, Trump has—implicitly or explicitly—prompted his biggest boosters including trillionaire and SpaceX founder Elon Musk to act out on his behalf.
Perhaps most notoriously, in early October Musk temporarily throttled Ukraine’s SpaceX-made Starlink and Starshield satellite terminals, which had the effect of grounding many of Ukraine’s best attack and interceptor drones.
Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, another Trump loyalist, took his time signing the paperwork necessary for Ukraine to receive Patriot missiles its allies had already paid for.
