Anything in date is spoken for.

Short-Dated

August 18, 2026 · Ibid.

In a cold military stockroom a small, exhausted Zelenskyy holds a wire supermarket basket with two missile-interceptor crates taken from a bottom shelf marked REDUCED, while a bored uniformed clerk crouches and presses an orange expiry sticker onto another crate, saying 'These expire in November.' At right, Trump stands in front of a padlocked steel cage of clean, unstickered crates, a key on a lanyard and a clipboard under his arm.

July 2026 was the deadliest month of Russia's war on Ukraine since May 2022, with 376 missiles, nearly 5,000 drones and hundreds of glide bombs launched. On July 24, three missiles reached Kyiv; air defence downed one and two struck a sports centre, killing 12. Kyiv holds roughly a tenth of the Patriot interceptors it needs after President Trump redirected PAC-2 and PAC-3 supplies to Middle East allies and the US strategic stockpile, and is soliciting interceptors from about 40 countries, some close to their expiry dates.