US President Donald Trump has approved Ukraine’s request to produce Patriot missiles domestically, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday evening in an interview with Fox News.
Zelensky made the remark after meeting Trump earlier on Tuesday at the White House.
After that meeting, Zelensky had said only that the two sides had discussed far-reaching co-operation, including the possible joint production of Patriot systems and the exchange of technology.
He has now said Trump agreed to grant the necessary licences, allowing Ukraine to build the missiles itself or have them manufactured on its behalf.
The Patriot air defence system is vital to Ukraine’s war effort against Russia. Kyiv currently depends on US supplies, while the US military also needs the missiles for its own operations in the conflict with Iran.
For Ukraine, the Patriots are regarded as the best — and at present the only effective — means of intercepting Russian ballistic missiles.
The White House has not yet confirmed Zelensky’s statement. Earlier this month, however, Trump said during the NATO summit in Ankara that he intended to grant the licences.
In the Fox interview, Zelensky also spoke about the war more broadly, saying Russian President Vladimir Putin was losing 30,000 soldiers a month but still showed no sign of wanting to end the conflict.
He said Ukraine was calling every day for an end to the fighting, or at least for a ceasefire, to give diplomacy a chance.
But Putin did not want that, Zelensky said, adding that Ukraine therefore had to respond firmly and remain strong.
He also said he was counting on the passage of a new sanctions law targeting Moscow. The US Senate took the first necessary steps on Tuesday.
