Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that technical details still needed to be agreed with the United States before Patriot air‑defence missiles could be produced in Ukraine.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would allow Ukraine to manufacture the missiles, the only weapon in the country’s arsenal capable of protecting its cities from Russian ballistic missile attacks.
“And now, after our agreement with the president, our teams … must agree on all the remaining technical aspects,” Zelensky said, answering a question about the Patriot system during a WhatsApp briefing.
Trump did not provide further details or a timeline. Experts say it takes about two years to produce a Patriot missile, one of the world’s most sophisticated air‑defence interceptors.
Ukraine’s dwindling stockpiles have been unable to keep up with the rate of Russian ballistic missile attacks on its cities. The U.S.-Israeli war against Iran has also significantly reduced global supplies of the critical interceptor missiles.
Trump also did not indicate whether any immediate Patriot supplies were on the table.
Wednesday’s meeting between the two leaders on the sidelines of the NATO summit marked a sharp contrast with their acrimonious Oval Office clash last year.
“Our meeting with President Trump was also productive,” Zelensky told journalists during the briefing.
“I am grateful for the positive decision on the licence to manufacture Patriots. We discussed this in detail with the president and with his delegation,” he added.
Main obstacle would be time
Exploiting Ukraine’s shortage of air‑defence missiles, Russia has intensified its strikes in recent weeks, killing more than 50 people in Kyiv alone so far this month.
On the night of July 5‑6, Kyiv’s air defences failed to intercept a single ballistic missile, a worrying development for what had previously been regarded as the country’s best‑protected city.
Trump’s decision is unlikely to resolve Ukraine’s shortage anytime soon.
Setting up domestic production of the mobile, surface‑to‑air systems will take many months, according to Serhii Beskrestnov, an adviser to Ukraine’s defence minister.
A production license would typically come with technical process documentation, training for specialists, supplier contacts and foreign consultants to help launch manufacturing, Beskrestnov wrote on his Telegram channel.
The main obstacle would be time, rather than Ukraine’s technical or organisational capacity, he added.
Recent media reports pointed to two likely bottlenecks: the long production cycle for some subcontracted components, which could take 12 to 24 months, and limited global output of key parts, including components from Boeing and L3Harris, Beskrestnov added.
Pending agreements with the manufacturers of the Patriot missile, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, it typically takes up to 24 months to produce the interceptor and about 30 months to manufacture its engine, according to the U.S. Foreign Policy Research Institute.