00:00How concerning is Ukraine's critical shortage of Patriot missiles?
00:05And does this leave the country exposed to Russian ballistic strikes
00:09before any replacements from Europe and the U.S. arrive?
00:13Because this is something that Zelensky has been talking about on the rounds.
00:18He was mentioning it when he was in Germany recently.
00:21Yeah, he's been mentioning it for five years,
00:23that he needs more and he needs more of the PAC-2, PAC-3.
00:26So, you know, whatever variant he can find, he wants.
00:30One of the reasons that he made the offer to assist Gulf countries was as a quid pro quo.
00:39Part of it was, we'll help you.
00:42We'll send our people.
00:43We'll send our drone interceptors.
00:45We'll help protect you from Iran.
00:47But we know that you've got Patriot batteries and we need those Patriot missiles,
00:53which are $3 million a pop, which the U.S. only manufactures about $800 a year,
00:59and which we already have orders for double, near triple that,
01:03that have been outstanding for four, five, and six years, including to Taiwan.
01:08So, President Zelensky has a problem in terms of Patriots.
01:13There are other options.
01:15They're far less expensive.
01:18In some respects, they're not as good.
01:21However, does it make a lot of sense to be shooting down a Shaheed drone at $50,000 or $100
01:29,000
01:30or cheaper drones or missiles or rockets from Russia using a $3 million projectile?
01:37And now, if you're one of those families that lost a child or lost a husband or a wife,
01:44you don't care whether it's $3 million or $6 million.
01:46You just want it.
01:48One other aspect that happened, one other development,
01:52while the Russians did attack Ukraine,
01:54there are reports that Ukrainian attack killed two children in Russia.
02:01That's really, really unusual because the Ukrainians go out of their way
02:07to try to do everything that the Russians don't do.
02:10So, they try to stay away from civilian infrastructure where there are civilians.
02:16They attacked a train or a bridge, and there were some people killed there last year.
02:22But if this is accurate, this is new.
02:26And unfortunately for the Ukrainians, this is a gift from a propaganda standpoint
02:32to President Putin and the people that support the war in Russia
02:37because now they can say, hey, look, Ukrainians kill children too.
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