Tens of thousands of anti-drone missiles were promised to Ukraine by the Biden administration, Vladimir Zelensky has said

US President Donald Trump's administration has diverted a large military aid package his predecessor promised to Kiev to American forces in the Middle East, Ukraine's Vladimir Zelensky has told ABC. The package included thousands of anti-drone missiles Ukraine desperately needs to fight Russia's long-range unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), he said.

The Ukrainian leader raised the issue in an interview with ABC News' Martha Raddatz which aired on Sunday. When asked about the importance of US support, Zelensky admitted that the Ukrainian military was struggling to deal with Russian UAVs on its own.

"We have a lot of problems with these Shaheds," he said, referring to Russian Geran-2 long-range drones, which Kiev claims to be Shahed-family UAVs allegedly supplied to Moscow by Tehran. Both Russia and Iran have previously denied the allegations.

The Ukrainian leader then revealed that Kiev had not received a major aid package it was "counting on." Former US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin promised Ukraine 20,000 anti-drone missiles that were based on a "special technology," Zelensky claimed. Austin served as the secretary of defense under Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden.

"[This] morning, my minister of defense told me that the United States moved them to the Middle East," Zelensky said, adding that, without the US military assistance, Russia has "more chances" of winning the war and Ukraine will have "much more losses." 

Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Pentagon was "redirecting a key anti-drone technology earmarked for Ukraine to American forces" in the Middle East.
President Trump has frequently questioned continued military support for Ukraine, and has pushed Moscow and Kiev to reach a peace deal. Earlier this week, he also said that it might be better to let Russia and Ukraine continue fighting "for a while" before "pulling them apart."

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth - a critic of the US involvement in the Ukraine conflict - skipped a NATO meeting this week focused on coordinating military aid to Ukraine, in the first such instance since the conflict escalated in 2022. According to the WSJ, the Trump administration "inherited" the authority to provide Ukraine with $3.85 billion worth of weapons but has refrained from doing so.

Moscow has repeatedly condemned foreign arms shipments to Kiev by arguing that they do not change the course of the conflict, only lead to escalation, and extend human suffering.