Trump gives Ukraine OK to produce Patriot missiles as war with Russia drags on
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 "thatll 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. didnt 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
SamuelAdams
(450 posts)We keep hearing how we've never been so well armed, blah, blah, blah.
ahnakneemoose
(117 posts)Even if they were given detailed blueprints of the entire system, it would take many-many years just to arrange a pipeline for parts and to develop the manufacturing equipment and engineering expertise...(not going to happen in this timeline).
ChicagoTeamster
(1,562 posts)while Ukraine's flamingo missiles hit the Kremlin and air and naval bases? And drones take out Oil refineries, defense production, aircraft on the ground, and supply convoys.
BumRushDaShow
(174,144 posts)Because we depleted our stocks on a made-for-teevee "war" and probably hit some hard red line to not use any more.
ChicagoTeamster
(1,562 posts)They already knew they were going to be bombing Iran a year in advance. Netanyahu met with Trump at Mar-a-Lardass in summer 2024.
BumRushDaShow
(174,144 posts)We "obliterated" Iran's nuclear sites in June 2025 after Israel initiated their own attack in 2025 -
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143477446
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143483247
That fiasco started the depletion.
A year later, the wad has been blown.
ChicagoTeamster
(1,562 posts)and by the time Trump got in, they were probably already saving them for Iran and possibly China
BumRushDaShow
(174,144 posts)while Iran was firing from the east.

I think this is why Zelenskyy has been asking European countries to spare some.
ChicagoTeamster
(1,562 posts)I'm convinced that Russia was behind getting Iran to direct Hamas to conduct the Oct 7 attack so that they could get Republicans in Congress to block Ukraine aid because we had to help Israel.
BumRushDaShow
(174,144 posts)most for the first time (except Kuwait, which has been there done that for 30+ years), means they may be running low as I doubt they had that many.
I don't know how much Russia was involved with Hamas but I expect they are still meddling in Syria and most likely in Lebanon with Hezbollah.
newdeal2
(5,699 posts)The details have to be worked out - aka he made this up on the spot and its probably an unworkable idea that the media will forget about in a few days.
kimbutgar
(27,765 posts)I wonder how Putin feels about this news?