Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal says he thinks his country's air defence "will be very effective" once the embattled country receives all of the equipment the West has pledged to provide, shooting down suggestions raised in leaked Pentagon documents alleging Ukraine’s air defence was vulnerable.
"We are much more protected in the sense of air defence than in the beginning of this war. We asked to protect our sky in the very first month of this full-scale aggression. Now, we have even all kinds of air defence in Ukraine," Shmyhal said in a one-on-one interview with CTV News Chief Political Correspondent Vassy Kapelos.
"It's vast kinds of equipment, NATO standard equipment, it's very effective."
"I think that our air defence will be very effective when we will have all the equipment which we are waiting [for] from West partners. But any way, more than 80 per cent of missiles and drones are destroyed by our air defence system as of now," he said, referencing countries including Canada and the U.S. sending surface-to-air missile defence systems to Ukraine as Russia's attacks continue.
This comes in response to reporting by The New York Times based on leaked top-secret Pentagon documents that included assessments of Ukrainian troops' capabilities.
CTV News has not independently verified the reporting, with Defence Minister Anita Anand telling CTV News Channel's Power Play on Monday that the "alleged leaks… are being investigated."
In the one-on-one, Shmyhal also appeared to caution Canadians against believing Russian "psychological informational operations," and said that Ukraine's unity with partners including Canada and the U.S. remains steadfast.
"We have great cooperation with our partners… We believe each other," he said. "And now we are preparing our counter-offensive."
You can watch a portion of prime minister Shmyhal's conversation with Kapelos, in the video at the top of this article.
Tune in to CTV's Question Period on Sunday at 11 a.m. ET for the full exclusive interview.
