European leaders want to convince Trump to provide Ukraine with missiles for Patriot - Burnham

Prime Minister of Great Britain Andy Burnham and other European leaders plan to travel to the United States in September to try to convince President Donald Trump to provide Ukraine with access to part of the American stockpiles of Patriot interceptor missiles before winter.

Burnham said this in an interview with Bloomberg in Kyiv after the meeting of the "Coalition of the Willing" and negotiations with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The British Prime Minister plans to visit New York in September during the UN General Assembly. According to him, the details of the trip have not yet been finally agreed, but after the negotiations in Kyiv he clearly understands what needs to be worked on in the coming weeks.

Burnham noted that European leaders are considering holding another meeting of the "Coalition of the Willing" during the UN General Assembly. One of the main topics may be the search for additional Patriot missiles - both in American stockpiles and in the arsenals of other countries.

According to the British Prime Minister, he leaves Kyiv with optimism about the possibility of solving the problem of the shortage of interceptor missiles, which makes it harder for Ukraine to counter Russian ballistic missiles.

Great Britain itself does not operate the Patriot systems that Ukraine needs, so, according to Burnham, other partners should join the supply. He acknowledged that the agreement is likely to require the participation of several states and complex negotiations.

Ukraine has repeatedly asked partners to increase supplies of Patriot missiles before winter, when Russia may again intensify strikes on energy infrastructure. According to Bloomberg, Zelenskyy stated that Ukraine needs about 300 Patriot missiles for the winter period.

The situation is complicated by the reduction of available interceptor stocks. Bloomberg notes that the war with Iran has significantly increased the demand for Patriot missiles and led to delays in supplies, and a number of allies are not in a hurry to transfer their own stocks to Ukraine.

Earlier, Trump also expressed caution about transferring Patriot missile production technologies to Kyiv. In July, he said that the US is discussing this issue with Ukraine, but called the transfer of such technologies a complicated decision.

At the same time, during Burnham's visit to Kyiv, Great Britain agreed to allow the company MBDA to transfer to Ukraine classified information about British components of long-range SCALP missiles. This is expected to help establish their assembly in Ukraine.

According to materials: Bloomberg