Zelensky says Trump has approved licence for Ukraine to produce Patriot missiles

KYIV – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sept 25 said US President Donald Trump told him he would allow Ukraine to produce advanced Patriot air defence missiles, after a series of reversals on the issue.

Kyiv is facing a shortage of the missiles, needed to counter Russia’s increasing drone and missile attacks on the country, the latest of which killed a 14-year-old boy in the capital on Sept 25.

Zelensky during his latest visit to the United States this week renewed calls for air defence support, and for the Patriots, which remain the only system reliably able to counter Russia’s powerful ballistic missiles.

“At our last meeting, President Trump emphasised to me that yes, I have made a final decision. Ukraine will receive licences for the production of Patriot missiles,” Zelensky said in a voice note to journalists.

In July, Trump said it would be “pretty cool” to grant Ukraine the licences, before backtracking, saying the US should be “very careful” before granting Ukraine authorisation.

Ukraine has reported an acute shortage of Patriot interceptors since the US and Israel went to war with Iran in February, diverting supplies of the advanced systems.

Even if the licences are granted, establishing industrial capacity would require more than a year and would not meet Kyiv’s immediate needs.

And Kyiv, preparing for winter, has renewed calls for urgent support.

It needs 5 per cent of the US’ Patriot interceptor missiles to get through the winter and 10 per cent to destroy all of Russia’s ballistic projectiles, Zelensky said in August.

Moscow has also been aiming at the capital with newly developed jet-powered drones, which have succeeded in bypassing some of the drone interception systems developed by Ukraine.

While it used to target Kyiv mainly during the hours of darkness, Moscow now often attacks in broad daylight.

As people were making their way to work on the morning of Sept 25, a drone struck a residential building in the city, killing a 14-year-old boy.

Zelensky denounced the attack, calling it “an absolutely savage and sickening strike, devoid of any military logic”.

AFP journalists on the spot saw residents gathering around a multi-storey building, with apartments on the ninth and 10th floors left charred by the attack.

Mykyta Sysoyev was smoking a cigarette outside his damaged building.

The 23-year-old IT specialist said he was woken up by an explosion but only realised the strike had hit his own building when he checked the news.

“My jaw dropped a bit,” he said. “It’s strange: on the one hand, I’ve got used to it, but on the other, people are constantly dying.”

Asked about the increase in drone strikes, he added: “This is a technological race and a technological war... Unfortunately, people will suffer while we’re searching for solutions.”

In the southern region of Odesa, another person was killed in a repeated strike on a postal facility, the authorities said. AFP