Ukraine and the US are preparing a contract for the supply of 25 Patriot systems - Zelenskyy
Kyiv • UNN
Kyiv and Washington are preparing a contract for 25 Patriot systems, which is a request from the Ukrainian army. The deal is planned to be financed by frozen Russian assets.
Kyiv and Washington are preparing a contract for 25 Patriot systems. This was stated by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a meeting with journalists, reports UNN.
Details
In coordination with the relevant US services, we have held talks with defense companies regarding air defense, and are preparing a contract for 25 Patriot systems. I believe this is a very good story. Not an easy one. But a long-term one. There are queues in production. And there is the number of systems that are needed as soon as possible, and there are also those that are needed long-term as a guarantee of security. These are the 25 systems that are needed. We spent a lot of time in talks with companies and in talks at the White House and personally with the President. 25 systems is a request from our army, I want to emphasize this - from the Air Force, specifically from air defense
The President noted that a lot of work has been done.
A team came to the United States: Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, Head of the Office Andriy Yermak, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Rustem Umerov. They prepared these meetings of ours, then my meetings with them took place, then my meetings at the White House. And before that, there were phone calls with President Trump. The difficulty is in the queue to get these systems - a queue of countries that have concluded relevant contracts. We will receive these 25 systems every year, a different number in different years. The White House can change the queue if there is political will. We understand which European countries can give us this priority in the queue. There is more positivity in this matter - now we are working to get the necessary decisions
He explained that each of the European countries that are key in NATO has its own systems, and there are also systems belonging to the United States.
This suggests that if everyone works together and if there is good will, then with these American systems that are in these European countries, the White House could help us - so that we get them. For our systems, for the number I told you about, appropriate money is needed. It is clear to us that the number one source of this money is money from the use of frozen Russian assets. That is, the financial basis for this agreement has been worked out. Of course, we also need to work on another financial source. We have 28 bilateral security agreements with countries today. Finding finances and paying an advance payment is such a task, and within these agreements, it is realistic
In addition, he commented on the situation with "Tomahawks".
The second story is with long-range weapons, namely with "Tomahawks". President Trump publicly said that America needs them. In my opinion, he does not want escalation with the "Russkies" until he meets with them. We have said both publicly and non-publicly that we are ready to meet in any format that works. Of course, I believe that the main thing is the result
Addendum
US Vice President JD Vance stated that Trump is still deciding whether to give Ukraine Tomahawk missiles.
During his visit to the US, President Zelenskyy informed the American side in detail about the situation at the front, Russian missile strikes, and priority defense needs. As part of the visit, the Ukrainian delegation held a series of meetings, including with representatives of defense and energy companies.