Ankara, Turkey. Ukraine and the United States have reached a political agreement on licences for the production of PAC-3 Patriot interceptors, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday. He added that key supplies of the missiles were expected to arrive in the next few days.
Patriot interceptor agreement
Zelenskiy made the remarks to reporters after returning from a NATO summit and talks with U.S. President Donald Trump in Turkey. He said the agreement would allow work to begin on securing licences quickly and starting production in Ukraine as soon as possible.
“I believe this was a productive summit for Ukraine. In the coming days, we’ll receive a package from the United States, and there were also some separate agreements,” Zelenskiy said, referring to securing the PAC-3 interceptors.
“We resolved this issue politically,” he said of producing Patriot missiles for Ukraine. “It’s now very important that our technical teams, all our representatives from different ministries, representatives of the executive branch, start working on this without delay, so that we can get licences very quickly and start production in Ukraine as soon as possible.”
Missile defence needs
The Patriot is a U.S.-made air defence system. Its PAC-3 interceptor, short for Patriot Advanced Capability-3, is one of the few Western weapons capable of shooting down the ballistic missiles Russia has increasingly fired at Ukrainian cities.
Zelenskiy has repeatedly called for faster deliveries of interceptors able to counter Russian ballistic missiles, as recent attacks have intensified on the Ukrainian capital and other cities.
Drone cooperation talks
Zelenskiy also said talks were continuing with the United States on a “drone deal” or joint drone production, although no such agreement had yet been signed with Washington.
He said some documents had already been signed to allow the American side to receive various Ukrainian systems for testing.
According to Zelenskiy, these included “both aerial drones and marine drones, as well as other technological things”.
Talks with European allies
Zelenskiy said discussions would also continue with Ukraine’s European allies on developing a separate anti-missile system. He said a meeting on the issue was planned in France in the near future.
Relations with Trump
The Ukrainian president has improved his relations with Trump through a series of meetings following an encounter last year in the Oval Office that descended into a shouting match.