President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that the first FREYJA anti-ballistic system is expected to be ready by the end of this year.
The Ukrainian president made the announcement while speaking to the media in Canada.
“We are working on FREYJA, and we are very pleased that today we had an opportunity to discuss it with the Prime Minister, and Canada will join this programme. It will be our new anti-ballistic system. Companies told us that they would need 20 to 30 years for a new anti-ballistic system. I said that we do not want such a long war. Absolutely not. That belongs to another world, to the 20th century. Today we have new technologies and a new Ukraine, and we can do all of this faster. We expect to have the first system by the end of this year,” Zelensky said.
He noted that the FREYJA anti-ballistic programme had previously been discussed in Norway and was also discussed during his visit to Canada.
“We also expect that in New York we will have a clearer understanding of the timetable for all our next steps. This is about defence,” the president added.
FREYJA is a prospective pan-European integrated air and missile defence project focused on intercepting ballistic missiles. Ukraine is developing the system together with European countries, with Ukrainian defence company Fire Point involved in the project. It is intended to provide a cheaper, scalable alternative to US-made Patriot air defence systems.
