(ANKARA, Turkey) — 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.
The meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy in Ankara came as expenditures of U.S. Patriot PAC-3 interceptor missiles in Ukraine and the Middle East have dramatically outpaced current production capabilities, resulting in a critical global shortage as the Russia-Ukraine war drags on.
“We need to find a way to get as quick as possible, as much as possible, missiles for Patriot systems. This is the most important thing,” Zelenskyy said at a defense industry forum at the alliance’s annual summit on Tuesday.
Russia has sought to exploit this shortfall by launching concentrated bombardments of ballistic missiles and drone swarms at Ukrainian targets, overwhelming the country’s defenses and resulting in scores of civilian deaths.
On Wednesday, Zelenskyy praised the U.S. for its support throughout the war.
“Mr. President, thank you very much for this meeting. And we’re thankful, as always, to your support, American support, bipartisan support,” he said.
Russia’s ‘last major advantage’
In an address to members of the NATO alliance on Tuesday, Zelenskyy stressed the critical nature of the shortage and argued it was time for Europe to produce its own systems to counter Russian ballistic missiles, calling the rocket-powered missiles Moscow’s “last major advantage.”
“We all value the Patriot system. It’s an excellent system,” he said. “But today’s wars have shown current Patriot production is not enough to meet the growing demand for protection against ballistic missiles. That is a fact.”
For his part, Trump presented a rosier outlook — asserting that an end to the conflict in Ukraine, which is now in its fifth year, could be on the horizon.
“I think we’re getting much closer than people realize, and President Putin wants it to end,” Trump said on Monday. “And President Zelenskyy actually wants it to end now.”
Trump also downplayed the impact of the war in Ukraine on Tuesday, saying “it doesn’t affect us” and depicting the conflict as a European issue. Trump had promised to end the war on Day 1 in office — a pledge he later said was hyperbolic.
Trump’s comments come amid Russian escalation in recent days. On Monday, Russian strikes targeted Ukraine’s military-industrial complex and energy infrastructure in and around Kyiv, according to Russia’s defense ministry.
Zelenskyy has been warning the Trump administration about the crucial depletion of interceptor missiles for several weeks. He is also pressing the U.S. to expedite a license that would allow Ukraine to manufacture Patriot batteries and interceptors domestically.
A strained relationship
The bilateral meeting tested the strength of Trump and Zelenskyy’s sometimes-rocky relationship at a time when Ukraine is facing new vulnerabilities on the battlefield and diplomacy with Russia has largely stalled.
Trump, on Wednesday, described Zelenskyy as a “difficult character,” but said they have a good relationship.
The leader’s first meeting of Trump’s second term — a February 2025 conversation in the Oval Office — devolved into a shouting match after Trump expressed skepticism about Ukraine’s position in the conflict and called for more gratitude from Zelenskyy for U.S. support.
But Trump appeared to grow more sympathetic to the Ukrainian cause over the past year as repeated efforts to bring Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table fell flat.
A watershed moment came last July when, after repeatedly pausing military aid to Ukraine, Trump agreed to supply weapons to Ukraine if they were purchased from the U.S. by NATO allies.
And there have been signs over the past month that Trump is reengaging in efforts to bring peace to Ukraine and once again eager to coordinate a deal between Zelenskyy and Putin.
During their bilateral meeting, Trump said he spoke with Putin about the Russian president’s desire to set up a meeting in Moscow, though Zelenskyy wouldn’t commit to such a meeting.
Trump held calls with Zelenskyy and Putin over the weekend as both leaders congratulated the president on the 250th anniversary of the United States’ independence.
It’s unclear how substantive the conversations were, though a Kremlin aide said that Trump spoke to Putin for 90 minutes and again offered to help end the war. Zelenskyy said he had “a very good call” with Trump and conveyed there was a “real prospect” for peace.
Trump last met with Zelenskyy at the G7 summit in June, where he, at times, appeared friendly to Ukraine’s cause — describing Russia as the “offensive” party in the conflict and saying he was “going to do whatever” he could to strike a deal.
French President Emmanuel Macron — the host of the G7 summit — said after the meeting that he was optimistic about Trump’s support for Ukraine, claiming he observed “a real change in comparison to recent months” in his attitude.
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