Trump doubts granting Ukraine a license to produce missiles for Patriot - FT
Kyiv • UNN
US President Donald Trump said he is not sure whether he will allow Ukraine to obtain a license to produce missiles for the Patriot. The issue is still under consideration, and the US is cautious about transferring such technologies.
U.S. President Donald Trump said he is not yet sure whether he will allow Ukraine to obtain a license to produce missiles for Patriot air defense systems. He stated this in an interview with the Financial Times, reports UNN.
Details
According to the American president, the issue is still under consideration, and the U.S. traditionally takes a very cautious approach to transferring such technologies.
We are considering this issue. This is an absolutely exceptional weapon, and we need to be a little more careful about who we issue licenses to. In fact, we do not issue licenses for such equipment
Zelenskyy stated that Trump supported the idea of a license
The issue of transferring a license to Ukraine for the production of Patriot missiles was first publicly raised in early July during a meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Turkey. According to Zelenskyy, they also discussed this topic during their meeting in Washington this week.
After the negotiations, the Ukrainian president said the sides discussed the production of Patriot missiles and other defense projects, and also reported that Trump supported the proposal to grant Ukraine the relevant licenses.
As the Financial Times notes, the possibility of local production of Patriot missiles is critical for Ukraine, as these systems remain one of the few effective means of intercepting Russian ballistic missiles.
In addition, Trump said that his 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, where they met with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.