US President Donald Trump walked back his decision to let Ukraine produce its own Patriot interceptors in comments to the Financial Times on Thursday.
Despite previously publicly announcing that he would grant Kyiv the license to the surface-to-air interceptor missiles, Trump told the FT that he was “not sure” about the license and that “we’re looking at it.”
“It’s a very extraordinary weapon, and . . . we have to be a little bit careful of who we license to. We don’t really license equipment,” he told the FT.
Last week, Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had a “positive and productive,” meeting ahead of former US senator Lindsey Graham’s funeral.
Before his meeting with Trump, Zelensky said that his “number-one priority is anti-ballistic defense and strategic cooperation with America.”
Zelensky said Trump “accepted that he will give us licenses”
After the meeting, Zelensky said that Trump had “accepted that he will give us licenses.”
That same day, Zelensky met with representatives from Lockheed Martin, which produces the Patriot interceptors, as well as several other ballistic missile systems.
Zelensky wrote on X/Twitter that he discussed “our joint capabilities related to Patriots and other systems.”
“Our teams are already working on specific solutions to move to co-production as quickly as possible and increase our capabilities to protect lives,” he added.
Ukraine has notably become a world leader in drone production and deterrence, but has yet to figure out a way to protect itself from ballistic missiles.
On Friday, Ukraine’s envoy to Washington, Olha Stefanishyna, told reporters that Ukraine was in discussions with the Pentagon about a license to produce Patriot PAC-3 missiles itself, but that process could take 12 months to five years.
Officials from Patriot maker Raytheon Co had already been to Ukraine, and Lockheed Martin Corp, which builds the PAC-3 interceptors for the air defense system, was working to send a team of experts to the country as well, Stefanishyna told an event hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.
“He has an intention to destroy Ukraine, and that’s why, you know, we’re looking for different capabilities,” she said.
“We have been successful in everything, but so far, for this winter, we need the missiles.”
“Make them yourself”: Trump told Zelensky he could have license to produce Patriot
In July, Trump told Zelensky that he would give him the license to make the missiles.
“We’re going to give a license to you to make Patriots. That’s pretty cool. This way, you can’t complain that we’re not giving ’em enough,” Trump said at a meeting with Zelensky at the NATO summit in Ankara.
“It’s a defensive weapon, which I like better than an offensive weapon,” Trump said.
Trump then told the FT on Thursday that he was more interested in ending the war in Ukraine than in giving Ukraine the defensive weapon.
“Very simply put, we want the war in Ukraine with Russia ended,” he said. “I’m not looking for missiles. We’re looking for peace.”
Reuters contributed to this report.
