President Volodymyr Zelensky told Axios in an interview on Tuesday, that he asked US President Donald Trump for an emergency “winter package” of Patriot air defense interceptors to help thwart Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.According to Axios, Ukraine’s stockpiles of the interceptors have been almost depleted, and without them the country cannot defend itself against Russian ballistic missiles – the reason Ukraine could not stop recent Russian attacks on Kyiv, Zelensky said.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.Russia uses 30 to 40 ballistic missiles in every major strike it conducts against Ukraine, with three to five such attacks every month.If the problem is not solved by winter, Russian missile attacks could destroy Ukraine’s power plants, shutting off heating for millions of Ukrainians and creating a humanitarian crisis.The urgency for PatriotsDuring the NATO summit in Turkey earlier this month, Zelensky and Trump discussed the possibility of the US giving Ukraine licenses to produce Patriot interceptors to reduce its dependence on US stockpiles and boost production overall.Zelensky said Trump agreed during their Tuesday meeting to move ahead with the Patriot production licenses. After his White House visit, Zelensky also met with representatives of Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, both of which produce Patriot interceptors, to discuss the issue.However, even if Ukraine obtains the licenses, it would take one to five years to produce large amounts of interceptors.