US keeps Ukraine’s Patriot missile hopes alive despite Trump setback

The US is continuing talks on allowing Ukraine to produce Patriot interceptor missiles, which Kyiv urgently needs to defend against Russian attacks, despite President Donald Trump's recent doubts about the plan, according to four sources familiar with the discussions.

One proposal under discussion would allow Ukraine to manufacture certain Patriot components domestically before sending them to another European country for final assembly, Caliber.Az reports via Reuters.

Ukraine has been seeking additional PAC-3 interceptors, the latest Patriot missile variant and one of the few systems capable of destroying the ballistic missiles Russia has increasingly used against Ukrainian targets.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy previously warned that Ukraine had run out of Patriot interceptors, saying that only one of the 27 ballistic missiles launched by Russia on a single day had been shot down.

During talks with Zelenskyy in Ankara, Türkiye, last month, Trump said the United States would grant Ukraine a license to produce PAC-3 missiles, a move seen as a significant boost for Kyiv.

However, Trump appeared to back away from that position last week following what two of the sources described as a difficult meeting with Zelenskyy at the White House. Speaking to reporters afterwards, he said the United States had not agreed to allow Ukraine to manufacture Patriot missiles and stressed that Washington must be "very careful about letting somebody build them."

Despite those remarks, the negotiations have continued. Washington's ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, has been leading the effort to secure an agreement and travelled to Kyiv last month to discuss the proposal and review possible options with Ukrainian officials and defence industry representatives, the four sources noted.

“No order was given to halt the discussions,” one of the sources said, adding that negotiations were continuing with US defence contractors, military officials and other stakeholders.

By Jeyhun Aghazada