“We are gonna give you a licence to make Patriots,” Trump told Zelensky. “I think they can produce them very quickly once we explain it.”
Trump said he had not yet informed defence manufacturers Lockheed Martin and Raytheon of the decision, “but that’ll work out alright”. The comments came as Ukraine seeks additional air defence capacity after repeated Russian missile attacks.
Patriot systems detect and intercept missiles and are regarded as among the world’s leading air defence systems. They are also among the most expensive, with a single battery and missiles valued at around $1 billion.
Production remains limited, with only 600 missiles made each year, according to the U.S. Department of Defence. The United States has been reluctant to transfer more systems after using more than half of its stockpile during its war with Iran earlier this year, according to the U.S.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“We have Patriots, but we don’t have that many. We need them for ourselves too,” Trump said. Ukraine has said it needs the systems urgently as Moscow has intensified ballistic missile strikes in recent months.
The attacks have caused dozens of deaths in Kyiv alone over the past week. In late May, Zelensky confirmed that Ukraine had formally asked the United States to authorise licensed production of Patriots.
After four-and-a-half years of war, fighting on the front line has mostly stalled, the Black Sea is at a standstill and Ukraine has largely learned to counter the hundreds of drones Russia launches at it nightly. Ballistic missiles remain harder to stop because they travel at high velocity and on a steep path, and Zelensky has described them as Russia’s “last major advantage”.
Many ballistic missiles have passed through Ukraine’s depleted air defences. Earlier this week, the Ukrainian Air Force said a “serious shortage” of interceptor missiles meant none of the 23 ballistic missiles fired by Russia on Sunday night were shot down, in an attack that killed more than 20 people.
Trump said the United States would provide the licence so that Kyiv could not “complain that we’re not giving them enough”. In Kyiv, however, there was some scepticism over whether the interceptor missiles could be produced on Ukrainian territory at this stage.
Military expert Ivan Stupak, a former security service officer, said Patriot missiles were vital for Ukraine’s defence. “Unfortunately, Ukraine is not able to produce such kinds of advanced munition, because it’s really sophisticated, cutting-edge equipment.”
“Technically and legally, I think this will be deployed to European soil instead – and supervised,” Stupak said, adding that the process could take many months. “It’s a matter of security. We have no safe place on the entire Ukrainian territory,” Stupak said.
During the news conference, Trump also acknowledged that Ukraine had recently had significant success in launching long-range strikes on Russia. Those attacks have hit targets thousands of kilometres from the front line.
“It’s an escalation, but it’s also an escalation that can help lead to an end,” Trump said. Sitting next to him, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Ukraine’s strikes on Russian refineries were needed to show Moscow “how difficult it is to defend its airspace”.
Trump also said Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom he said he spoke often, wanted to make a deal to end the war that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The U.S. president has made similar comments before, but his efforts to broker talks between Kyiv and Moscow have not produced results.
Trump again raised the possibility of a meeting between Zelensky and Putin to discuss ending the conflict. Putin has repeatedly said he would be open to such a meeting only if it were held in Moscow, an invitation many have interpreted as a provocation because Zelensky is highly unlikely to travel to Russia.
On Wednesday, Trump asked the Ukrainian president whether he was prepared to go to the Russian capital. “It’s difficult – there are a lot of Ukrianian drones there,” Zelensky quipped, referring to Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes on Moscow.
Source: BBC.
