US President Donald Trump has said he has not decided whether he will allow Ukraine to produce Patriot surface-to-air interceptor missiles, casting doubt on whether Washington will agree to one of Kyiv’s top priorities,
FT reports.
The US president said in a phone interview with the FT on Thursday that he was “not sure” whether Washington would grant Ukraine a licence to produce Patriot missiles, adding 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.”
Trump’s comments came just two days after he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House. Zelenskyy had described the meeting as “good” and said the two leaders had discussed “Patriot interceptor production and several other ideas”.
The US president had said in early July at the Nato summit in Turkey that Washington would grant Kyiv a licence to produce Patriot missiles.
The Patriot air-defence system is vital for Ukraine’s ability to intercept Russian ballistic missiles that are targeting Kyiv and other cities. Persuading Trump to consider allowing Kyiv to produce the missiles represents a significant achievement for Zelenskyy.
Following the White House meeting on Tuesday, Zelenskyy said Trump “accepted that he will give us licences”.
Zelenskyy added that he had recently met producers of the Patriot system: “I had [a] meeting with the representatives of production . . . I hope that we will do co-production. This is very important.”
Lockheed and RTX both produce Patriot interceptors.
Trump told the FT that his attention was focused on ending Russia’s war in Ukraine, adding that his two envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, would visit Ukraine for the first time in the coming days.
“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.”
Trump also insisted that despite Iran’s willingness to broaden the war in the Middle East by striking targets across the region in recent days, it would be only a matter of time until Tehran submitted.
“We are beating the hell out of them,” he said.
Trump also expressed optimism that the US would finalise the landmark civil nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia that was unveiled last week. He had said after the pact was initially announced that it would be contingent on Riyadh normalising diplomatic relations with Israel.
The president told the FT that he had spoken to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about normalising ties, and that it is “something that both countries like very much. It could happen.” Trump also met Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday.
The crown prince has, however, previously insisted that such a move would only be possible if Israel took irreversible steps towards enabling the establishment of a Palestinian state, which Israel has refused to do.
