US presses ahead with Ukraine Patriot missile talks despite Trump’s walkback

The United States is continuing negotiations with Ukraine on allowing Kyiv to manufacture Patriot interceptor missiles, even after President Donald Trump cast doubt on the deal he announced at last month's NATO summit in Ankara, according to four sources familiar with the discussions cited by Reuters.jpost

From Announcement to Reversal

Trump initially told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 8 at the NATO summit in Turkey that Washington would grant Ukraine "a license to make Patriots," calling it a boost for Kyiv's air defenses against Russian ballistic missile attacks. "We haven't informed the company of that yet, but that'll work out all right," Trump said at the time.tag24+2

But the offer unraveled weeks later. During a Cabinet meeting on July 31, Trump said the US had "not agreed to" letting Ukraine build Patriot missiles. He separately told the Financial Times he was "not sure" about the license and that "we have to be a little bit careful of who we license to".abcnews+1

Talks Continue Through Multiple Channels

Despite the public reversal, Washington's envoy to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, is now leading efforts to reach an agreement and traveled to Kyiv last month to discuss options with Ukrainian officials and weapons industry executives. "No order was given to halt the discussions," one source told Reuters.jpost

Options under consideration include building Patriot components in Ukraine and shipping them to Germany for final assembly, adding Ukraine to an existing US-European Patriot interceptor program, and allowing Kyiv to build a cheaper version of the PAC-3 missile. A senior Trump administration official confirmed the US is "exploring several potential pathways for future defense industrial cooperation with Ukraine."jpost

Urgent Need on the Ground

The negotiations carry added urgency after Zelensky warned that Ukraine had run out of Patriot interceptors, with only one of 27 Russian ballistic missiles fired in a recent barrage being shot down. Even if an agreement is reached, new missiles would not arrive for a year or more, and global stocks of the high-end interceptors have dwindled since they were diverted to the US military and Gulf allies during the Iran conflict.jpost

Ukraine's former ambassador to the US, Olha Stefanishyna, said Kyiv was exploring long-term purchases of PAC-3 interceptors and swapping deliveries with other countries to meet immediate needs, adding that Lockheed Martin ↗ 0.91% was "fully engaged" and working to send a team to Ukraine.jpost+1