President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported that Russia launches about a hundred Shahed drones over Ukraine almost every night, and approximately 90% of them are shot down by Ukrainian air defense forces.
He made this statement during his speech at the Munich Security Conference in Germany on February 14.
“Today, Ukraine has more experience than anyone in the world in protecting against all types of drones. Every night, every night, we face no less than a hundred shaheeds. Sometimes there are 400 or 500, 500 strike drones and Ukrainians shoot down almost 90. Can you imagine 90% of them? But it's still not 100,” Zelensky said.
According to him, Ukraine is currently actively working to increase this ratio, in particular, using various types of interceptors.
“Together with our partners, we are producing more and more of them every day, and we will reach the point where we will produce enough of them to make the 'shaheeds' a minor factor for Russia. But the key words here are together with partners,” the president noted.
According to Zelensky, at the moment there is no country in Europe that could rely solely on its own technologies and funds for defense in the event of a full-scale war.
“No one would stand alone. That's why we invest in interceptors and in defense. Russia is investing in breaking the unity between all of us, our unity with you, unity in Europe and unity in the Euro-Atlantic community. They seek to break it. Why? Because we still have ours,” Zelenskyy emphasized.
The head of state also provided statistics, noting that in January alone, the Russian Federation launched 6,000 strike drones, over 150 missiles of various types, and more than 5,000 guided bombs into Ukraine.
“Imagine this in your own city. Broken streets, destroyed houses, schools that are built underground. And this is daily life in Ukraine, of course, through Russia, for four long years,” the president said.
As a reminder, on February 13, Zelensky arrived at the 62nd Munich Security Conference, where he plans to hold a number of bilateral and multilateral meetings with partners aimed at strengthening defense and economic cooperation.
The day before, the president visited the first joint Ukrainian-German enterprise, where they began producing attack drones for the Ukrainian army. In particular, he inspected the first drone manufactured on the joint line, got acquainted with its production process, and watched the drone's first flight.
The Munich Security Conference has been held in the Bavarian capital of Munich in the winter since 1963. This year's conference will be the 62nd and will run until February 15.