President Donald Trump has said the US will allow Ukraine to manufacture Patriot missile interceptors by giving the war-hit nation a license to built a defence against incoming Russian missiles.
“We’re going to give a license to you to make Patriots. That’s pretty cool. This way, you can’t complain that we’re not giving ’em enough,” Trump said at a meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky at the Nato summit in Ankara.
Trump said the US did not have many Patriots and needed them for its defence needs too but Kyiv could produce them “pretty quickly”.
Lockheed Martin is the main contractor for the interceptor missiles for the Patriot system.
His announcement came after Ukrainian air defence forces overwhelmed by Russian missiles and drone attacks said they were running low on interceptor systems.
Russia attacked Kyiv throughout Wednesday, killing three people and injuring 13.
However, Trump’s announcement triggered condemnation from Moscow, with foreign ministry spokesperson saying Nato’s decisions at the Turkey summit could have catastrophic consequences.
