US President Donald Trump stated that he is not yet certain whether he will allow Ukraine to obtain a license to manufacture missiles for Patriot air defense systems. He said this in an interview with Financial Times.
According to Trump, the issue is still under consideration, and the United States traditionally takes a cautious approach to transferring such technologies.
We are looking at this matter. It is an absolutely exceptional weapon, and we need to be a bit more careful about who we issue licenses to. Actually, we don't issue licenses for such equipment
– Donald Trump
Divergence in interpretation of negotiations
The licensing issue was first raised publicly in early July during a meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy at the NATO summit in Turkey. Both sides returned to it this week during talks in Washington.
After the meeting, Zelenskyy stated that the discussion touched on missile production for Patriot and other defense projects, and that Trump supported the proposal to grant Ukraine the appropriate licenses. The American president's public position currently appears more restrained.
Why this is critical for air defense
Financial Times notes that the ability for local production of Patriot missiles is critical for Ukraine: these systems remain one of the few effective means of intercepting Russian ballistic missiles.
Earlier, it became known that the United States signed a $58.6 billion contract for the production of Patriot missiles, and Zelenskyy requested an urgent "winter package" of such missiles from Trump.
Next steps
Trump announced that special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will visit Ukraine in the coming days — this will be their first visit to Kyiv after several trips to Moscow to meet with Putin. Whether they will bring a concrete decision on the license will become clear from the results of this visit.
