US President Donald Trump stated in a phone interview with the Financial Times that he is “not sure” whether he will allow Ukraine to produce missiles for the PATRIOT air defense system.
“We are looking into this matter,” the publication quotes him.
The promise to grant a license for the production of missiles for PATRIOT was made at the beginning of July during a meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Turkey.
Trump and Zelensky discussed this topic at their meeting in Washington on Tuesday.
As Zelensky reported then, the presidents discussed the license for the production of missiles for the PATRIOT air defense systems, as well as “some other ideas that may help.”
The President of Ukraine called that meeting “good” and thanked “for everything we are doing together to protect the lives of Ukrainians and achieve peace.”
“We talked about diplomacy – it’s important to activate the diplomatic process. Our teams will agree on the details of their further communication,” Zelensky wrote.
Trump “accepted the proposal to grant us licenses,” the President of Ukraine stated.
At that time, Trump did not comment on Zelensky’s statement, only writing that the meeting went “very well” and many issues were discussed.
Now, just a few days later, Trump has somewhat changed his views.
“This is an absolutely exceptional weapon, and we need to be a bit more careful with whom we grant licenses. In fact, we don’t issue licenses for the equipment,” Trump said in an interview with the FT.
The PATRIOT systems are vital in terms of their ability to intercept Russian ballistic missiles (as well as hypersonic Zircons) aimed at Kyiv and other cities, so persuading Trump to consider allowing Kyiv to produce these missiles was a significant achievement for Zelensky, the publication comments.
In recent months, Russia has been effectively bombarding Kyiv with ballistics, and in the absence of PATRIOT missiles, few Russian missiles are intercepted. Ukraine fears that in such a situation, Moscow might completely destroy the energy infrastructure of several cities, including Kyiv, in the winter.
Even with the granting of a license, the start of production is not a quick matter, observers indicated. Therefore, Ukraine is trying to gather ready-made missiles from around the world to receive them in the coming months. Ukraine needs hundreds of such missiles.
Trump also told the FT that his special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will visit Ukraine in the coming days, confirming information from the publication’s sources.
This will be their first visit to Kyiv after several meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
“Simply put, we want the war in Ukraine with Russia to end,” said the American president. “I don’t need missiles. We need peace.”
At the same time, sources from “Radio Liberty” indicated that Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner might come to Kyiv on Independence Day, August 24.
Photo: Office of the President of Ukraine
