Donald Trump says Washington never agreed to license Ukraine to produce Patriot interceptor missiles, contradicting Zelensky's earlier account of their meeting.
US President Donald Trump said Washington has not agreed to license Ukraine to produce Patriot interceptor missiles. He described the technology as "a hard thing to give away," adding that a country that receives it "could someday turn on you." He made the remarks during a Cabinet-style gathering at Camp David.
Trump's remarks directly contradict how President Volodymyr Zelensky described their July 28 White House meeting, when he said Trump had agreed to move forward with production licenses. Earlier, at the NATO summit in Ankara on July 8, Trump had also publicly announced the US would grant Ukraine such a license.
Ukraine's stockpile of Patriot interceptors is nearly exhausted. Earlier this week, Zelensky told Axios he had asked Trump for an emergency "winter package" of 300 Patriot interceptors to head off a heating-season disaster — global production of these interceptors runs at only around 500 units a year. Even if a license were granted today, scaling up Ukrainian production would take one to five years.
A shortage of Patriot interceptors directly affects the ability to shield cities from ballistic strikes — the kind of missiles Russia regularly fires at residential neighborhoods. Volunteers Support Ukraine keeps helping people affected by the war in whatever way its resources allow, and follows the course of negotiations over strengthening the country's air defenses closely.
