Trump says Ukraine will get license to build Patriot systems domestically

President Donald Trump’s pledge to license Ukraine to domestically produce Patriot interceptor missiles has moved from a political announcement to an implementation push, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying approval was secured during their meeting in Ankara and that Ukrainian and U.S. teams must now finalize the technical steps quickly. Zelenskyy said Ukraine would receive a U.S. package in the coming days and that separate agreements with European allies also covered additional PAC-3 interceptors. He described the NATO summit in Turkiye as productive for Ukraine and said Washington recognizes Ukraine as technologically capable of producing Patriots, even though only two to three countries currently do so. The Patriot, a U.S.-made air-defense system, is one of the few Western weapons able to intercept the ballistic missiles Russia has increasingly used against Ukrainian cities. Kyiv has relied on allied donations, but global supplies are tight and Ukraine is consuming interceptors faster than they can be produced in the United States. Serhii Beskrestnov, an adviser to Ukraine’s defence minister, said the main constraint is time rather than Ukraine’s industrial capacity. He said a production license would normally include technical documentation, specialist training, supplier contacts and foreign consultants, while some subcontracted components could take 12 to 24 months to source or produce.