Overview
- Ukraine says Russia’s massive missile-and-drone barrage on May 24 overwhelmed air defences and caused dozens of civilian deaths and widespread damage in Kyiv.
- President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has sent a formal letter to President Donald Trump and U.S. Congress requesting Patriot PAC-3 interceptors and other air‑defence munitions to replenish depleted stocks.
- Ukrainian and Western officials say deliveries are slowed by competing demand from the Middle East and by procurement bottlenecks in the NATO PURL process, leaving some Patriot batteries without missiles.
- Reports that the U.S. plans to shrink the pool of forces it would make available to NATO in a crisis have intensified allied concern about deterrence and will push Europe to fill capability gaps ahead of a June force‑generation meeting.
- Separately, errant Ukrainian drones entering Baltic airspace, including a NATO shoot‑down on May 19, and foreign-made parts found in wreckage from the May 24 attack have heightened regional tensions and renewed calls for tighter export controls and sanctions enforcement.