Trump gives Ukraine OK to produce Patriot missiles as war with Russia drags on [View all]

Source: ABC News

July 8, 2026, 11:00 AM


President Donald Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday the U.S. will give Ukraine a license to produce Patriot air defense systems.

"One of the things we're going to be talking about is, you'll -- we're going to give a license to you to make Patriots. That's pretty cool, right?" Trump told Zelenskyy during a bilateral meeting at the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey. "This way he can't complain that we're not giving him enough. I said, 'Make them yourself,'" Trump added.

Trump said the company that manufactures Patriot systems hasn't been informed yet, but "that’ll work out all right."

But when asked whether Trump would be willing to provide Patriot interceptors to Ukraine up front while production gets into place, the president said the U.S. didn’t have that many missiles. “We have Patriots, but we don't have that many. We need them for ourselves, too,” he said.

Read more: https://abcnews.com/Politics/trump-zelenskyy-set-meet-nato-summit-turkey/story?id=134561170