Ukraine backers gather as war escalates, air defence runs low

NEW: Zelensky reveals scale of Ukraine's weapons shortage as war escalates and air defences run low, urging European backers for a package of at least 300 missiles for the coming winter.

Ukraine is asking Europe for three hundred air defence missiles. Minimum. Before winter.

President Zelensky laid out the numbers himself, and you can see him here making the case, flag behind him, no room left for diplomatic softening. The message was blunt. The war is escalating, the interceptors are running out, and the cold months are exactly when Russia goes after the power grid.

His European backers are gathering now to answer that request, and this is where it gets hard. Three hundred missiles isn't a line in a communique, it's stockpiles that capitals have been guarding jealously, and production lines that don't move fast. Every system that leaves a European shelf is one that country no longer has.

So the arithmetic for the winter is simple and unforgiving. Either those missiles arrive, or Ukrainian cities face the dark months with less cover than last year.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.