Trump has definitively agreed to give Ukraine licenses to produce Patriot missiles — Zelenskyy
US President Donald Trump has made a final decision to grant Ukraine licenses for the production of missiles for Patriot air defense systems. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated this on September 25, after several months of contradictory signals from Washington regarding the transfer of the relevant technologies.
"There are specific agreements, President Trump at the last meeting with me emphasized that he had made a final decision, Ukraine will receive licenses for the production of Patriot missiles", — Zelenskyy reported during a briefing with journalists.
Thus, according to the Ukrainian president, Washington has returned to the decision that Trump first publicly announced back on July 8 at the NATO summit in Ankara. At that time, the American president directly stated that the US would give Ukraine a license to produce Patriot interceptor missiles and transfer the necessary technologies for this.
After that, Kyiv already spoke of a political agreement. On July 15, Zelenskyy stated that he expected to receive the necessary licenses by the end of 2026, and the President's Office reported about the work of the American and Ukrainian sides on the implementation of the agreements.
However, at the end of July, Trump's position changed. On July 31, at a US government meeting in Camp David, he stated that the United States had in fact not yet agreed to transfer to Ukraine the right to produce Patriots.
"We have not agreed to that. We are discussing it, but such technology is very difficult to transfer", — Trump said then.
He explained the caution by saying that Patriot is one of the most sensitive American military technologies, and Washington must weigh the risks of transferring it to other countries. Reuters at the time directly characterized these words as a departure from Trump's July promise.
In September, negotiations intensified again. On September 14, Trump already stated that Washington was discussing the possibility of allowing Ukraine to produce a "less advanced" version of Patriot interceptor missiles. He had not announced a final decision at that time.
After the presidents' meeting in New York on September 22, Zelenskyy also spoke cautiously: according to him, on the issue of licenses he "did not hear a 'no'", but had not yet received a specific answer from Trump. The President's Office, meanwhile, reported that the Ukrainian and American teams were continuing to work on launching the production of Patriot interceptors in Ukraine.
Now Zelenskyy claims that during the last meeting, Trump already called his decision final. At the same time, the technical parameters of the licenses, the specific type of missiles, the timeline for starting production, and the participation of American manufacturers have not been publicly detailed.
The main producers of components for the Patriot system are the American RTX (Raytheon) and Lockheed Martin. Ukraine has already held negotiations with them on localizing production. In July, Zelenskyy met with the leadership of Raytheon, which, according to the President's Office, expressed readiness to develop joint production of interceptor missiles.
Even after receiving the license, the launch of production will not be immediate. Patriot uses complex guidance systems, engines, and electronics, some of which Ukraine will likely have to obtain from American partners. Therefore, the license primarily opens the way to the creation of production cooperation, but does not mean the immediate appearance of Ukrainian missiles.
Based on materials from: Ukrinform, Reuters, Office of the President of Ukraine
