July 8 (UPI) — The United States may allow Ukraine to manufacture Patriot air-defense missiles, U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday after a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Turkey.
The comments came during meetings — both in a group with other leaders and then one-on-one with Zelensky — at the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, The Washington Post reported. Trump also praised Zelensky and his country for their fight against Russia, a major shift in tone from his earlier complaints about Ukraine’s president, whom he called “ungrateful.”
Trump was sitting next to Zelensky at the summit when he said, “A little birdie told me this, about the fact that we’ll give them the right to make Patriots. We’ll show them how to do it; it’s very complex actually. But it’s — you’ll figure out the complexity quickly,” The Hill reported.
“So one of the things we’re going to be talking about is … we’re going to give a license to you to make Patriots,” Trump said. “That’s pretty cool.”
However, Trump also said, “We haven’t informed the company of that yet, but that’ll work out all right,” the Post reported.
U.S. companies Lockheed Martin and RTX Corp. produce the Patriot systems.
Ukraine uses the interceptors to knock Russian drones and missiles out of the sky before they can reach their targets. There is a shortage of the interceptors, which cost millions each to make.
“As long as Patriot missiles remain in our allies’ stockpiles” instead of going to Ukraine, “Russia is only encouraged to keep ‘vanquishing’ residential buildings,” Zelensky said in a statement Monday, the Post reported.
Russia launched a major attack on Kyiv on Monday.
Even if the United States gives Ukraine permission to make them, the cost of the Patriot systems and other concerns mean the country may not be able to produce them quickly.
Zelensky said that he was glad for the support nonetheless.
“We understand what to do,” he said. “It’s our estimation, what to do, how to win.”
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