{"id":570406,"date":"2026-08-01T14:27:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T14:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/570406\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T14:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T14:27:09","slug":"donald-trump-not-sure-about-giving-ukraine-patriot-missile-license","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/570406\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump ‘not sure’ about giving Ukraine Patriot missile license"},"content":{"rendered":"

US President Donald Trump<\/a> walked back his decision to let Ukraine produce its own Patriot interceptors in comments to the Financial Times on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Despite previously publicly announcing that he would grant Kyiv the license to the surface-to-air interceptor missiles, Trump told the FT that he was \u201cnot sure\u201d about the license and that \u201cwe\u2019re looking at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very extraordinary weapon, and\u2009.\u2009.\u2009. we have to be a little bit careful of who we license to. We don\u2019t really license equipment,\u201d he told the FT.<\/p>\n

Last week, Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had a “positive and productive,\u201d meeting ahead of former US senator Lindsey Graham\u2019s funeral.<\/p>\n

Before his meeting with Trump, Zelensky said that his \u201cnumber-one priority is anti-ballistic defense<\/a> and strategic cooperation with America.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Surface-to-airSurface-to-air missile launcher of the Patriot (Wisla) system newly integrated into the Integrated Battle Command System (IBCS) stands at an army base in Sochaczew, Poland, December 18, 2024. (credit: REUTERS\/KUBA STEZYCKI)Zelensky said Trump “accepted that he will give us licenses”<\/p>\n

After the meeting, Zelensky said that Trump had \u201caccepted that he will give us licenses.”<\/p>\n

That same day, Zelensky met with representatives from Lockheed Martin, which produces the Patriot interceptors, as well as several other ballistic missile systems.<\/p>\n

Zelensky wrote on X\/Twitter that he discussed \u201cour joint capabilities related to Patriots and other systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur teams are already working on specific solutions to move to co-production as quickly as possible and increase our capabilities to protect lives,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Ukraine has notably become a world leader in drone production and deterrence, but has yet to figure out a way to protect itself from ballistic missiles.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Ukraine\u2019s envoy to Washington, Olha Stefanishyna, told reporters that Ukraine was in discussions with the Pentagon about a license to produce Patriot<\/a> PAC-3 missiles itself, but that process could take 12 months to five years.<\/p>\n

Officials from Patriot maker Raytheon Co had already been to Ukraine, and Lockheed Martin Corp, which builds the PAC-3 interceptors for the air defense system, was working to send a team of experts to the country as well, Stefanishyna told an event hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.<\/p>\n

“He has an intention to destroy Ukraine, and that’s why, you know, we’re looking for different capabilities,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been successful in everything, but so far, for this winter, we need the missiles.”<\/p>\n

\"USUS President Donald Trump holds a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky alongside the NATO leaders summit at the Bestepe Presidential Compound in Ankara, Turkey, July 8, 2026. (credit: REUTERS\/JONATHAN ERNST)”Make them yourself”: Trump told Zelensky he could have license to produce Patriot<\/p>\n

In July, Trump told Zelensky that he would give him the license to make<\/a> the missiles.<\/p>\n

“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 Zelensky at the NATO summit in Ankara.<\/p>\n

“It’s a defensive weapon, which I like better than an offensive weapon,” Trump said.<\/p>\n

Trump then told the FT on Thursday that he was more interested in ending the war in Ukraine than in giving Ukraine the defensive weapon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cVery simply put, we want the war in Ukraine with Russia ended,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not looking for missiles. We\u2019re looking for peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reuters contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US President Donald Trump walked back his decision to let Ukraine produce its own Patriot interceptors in comments…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[54,42,43,257967,125002,40,38,41,39,1594,74283,29801],"class_list":["post-570406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-patriot-missile","tag-patriots","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-ukraine","tag-ukraine-russia-war","tag-volodymyr-zelensky"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}