Ukraine to get ‘license’ for making Patriot interceptors, Trump pledges

ANKARA — President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the United States will give a license to Ukraine for Patriot missiles as he said both Russia and Ukraine want to see the war settled.

“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 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the NATO summit in Ankara.

“It’s a defensive weapon, which I like better than an offensive weapon,” Trump said.

The U.S. president’s comments were quickly picked up by Russian state media, which keeps a keen eye on all news coming out of the NATO summit in Ankara.

Initial reporting was factual and brief, relaying the American president’s decision verbatim. State-aligned media had previously panned the idea as reckless and amplified Western skeptical voices calling the move a risk to U.S. national security over concerns the technology could fall into Russian hands.

U.S. President Donald Trump holds a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Ankara, Turkey, July 8, 2026. (Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)

Russia’s foreign ministry has criticized the Trump administration for continuing to back Ukraine, with Moscow’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov saying that Washington was giving up its role as an “honest broker” and shifting back toward more decisively supporting Kyiv.

Reporting by the FT from late June indicated that this was causing disillusionment with Trump amongst Putin’s close associates.

Wednesday’s announcement comes just days after Kremlin spokesperson Dimitry Peskov dropped Russia’s longstanding euphemism of the “special military operation” in Ukraine. Instead, speaking to Russian media on Sunday, it had become a “real war” due to the involvement of Western nations, Peskov said.

While Trump was unambiguous in Ankara about the licensing offer, some specifics would remain to be worked out with the U.S. contractors involved. It was unclear, for example, which type of interceptor missile - the simpler PAC-2 or the more capable PAC-3 - Trump intends to allow Ukraine to build.

Zelenskyy has repeatedly pleaded for the U.S.-made interceptors — the only weapon in Ukraine’s arsenal that can shoot down ballistic projectiles, whose high velocity and steep flight path make them difficult to stop.

He was expected to raise the issue with Trump during their meeting.

Trump said pressure could be applied to companies to produce Patriot missiles. “We have great power over the companies, those companies that make the Patriot,” he said.

“We haven’t informed the company of that yet, but that’ll work out all right. I’m sure they will be thrilled,” he said.

Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor for the interceptor missiles that go in the Patriot system.

Russia fired ballistic missiles at Kyiv again overnight, officials said on Wednesday, a third attack on the Ukrainian capital in less than a week exploiting Ukraine’s critical shortage of U.S.-made air-defense interceptors.

While Ukraine’s air defenses intercepted 139 of the 169 drones during the overnight strikes on the country, they were again unable to down any of the five ballistic missiles used by Russia, air force data showed.

Trump said both sides in the war would like to see it end, but Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy have both been “difficult.”

“We’ve settled a lot of wars, and this one is the one that I thought maybe would be the easiest, but Putin is a difficult character, and this guy’s a difficult character,” Trump said, referring to Zelenskyy, who was sitting next to him.

Zelenskyy said he wanted to discuss “some very important details” with Trump.

“I’m sure you will do everything to stop this war,” he told Trump.

Moscow has stepped up its air war on Ukraine in recent months as its ground advances have largely stalled and Ukrainian attacks on its military logistics and oil industry triggered widespread fuel shortages.

Linus Höller is Defense News' Europe correspondent and OSINT investigator. He reports on the arms deals, sanctions, and geopolitics shaping Europe and the world. He holds master’s degrees in WMD nonproliferation, terrorism studies, and international relations, and works in four languages: English, German, Russian, and Spanish.

安卡拉——美国总统唐纳德·特朗普周三表示，美国将向乌克兰发放“爱国者”导弹许可证，因为他表示俄罗斯和乌克兰都希望结束战争。

“我们将授权你们制造爱国者导弹。这很棒。这样，你们就不能抱怨我们给的不够了，”特朗普在安卡拉举行的北约峰会期间与乌克兰总统泽连斯基会晤时说道。

“这是一种防御性武器，我更喜欢防御性武器而不是进攻性武器，”特朗普说。

美国总统的言论很快被俄罗斯国家媒体报道，该媒体密切关注着安卡拉北约峰会的所有新闻。

最初的报道客观简洁，逐字逐句地转述了美国总统的决定。此前，官方媒体曾抨击这一想法鲁莽，并放大西方质疑的声音，称此举可能危及美国国家安全，因为人们担心这项技术可能会落入俄罗斯手中。

2026年7月8日，美国总统唐纳德·特朗普在土耳其安卡拉与乌克兰总统弗拉基米尔·泽连斯基举行双边会晤。（路透社/乔纳森·恩斯特摄）

俄罗斯外交部批评特朗普政府继续支持乌克兰，莫斯科外长谢尔盖·拉夫罗夫表示，华盛顿正在放弃其作为“诚实调解人”的角色，转而更加果断地支持基辅。

英国《金融时报》6月下旬的报道显示，这导致普京的亲信对特朗普感到失望。

就在克里姆林宫发言人德米特里·佩斯科夫放弃俄罗斯长期以来对乌克兰“特殊军事行动”的委婉说法几天后，周三的声明就发布了。佩斯科夫周日对俄罗斯媒体表示，由于西方国家的介入，这场行动已经演变成一场“真正的战争”。

尽管特朗普在安卡拉明确表示将向乌克兰提供导弹许可，但一些具体细节仍需与相关美国承包商商定。例如，目前尚不清楚特朗普打算允许乌克兰建造哪种拦截导弹——是结构简单的PAC-2，还是性能更强的PAC-3。

泽连斯基多次请求美国提供拦截导弹——这是乌克兰武器库中唯一能够击落弹道导弹的武器，弹道导弹速度快、飞行轨迹陡峭，难以拦截。

人们预计他会在与特朗普会面时提出这个问题。

特朗普表示，可以向生产“爱国者”导弹的公司施压。“我们对那些生产‘爱国者’导弹的公司拥有很大的影响力，”他说。

“我们还没有通知公司，但应该没问题。我相信他们会非常高兴的，”他说。

洛克希德·马丁公司是爱国者导弹系统拦截导弹的主要承包商。

官员们周三表示，俄罗斯连夜再次向基辅发射弹道导弹，这是不到一周内对乌克兰首都的第三次袭击，俄罗斯此举利用了乌克兰严重缺乏美国制造的防空拦截导弹的局面。

乌克兰空军数据显示，虽然乌克兰防空部队在夜间对该国的空袭中拦截了 169 架无人机中的 139 架，但仍然未能击落俄罗斯使用的 5 枚弹道导弹中的任何一枚。

特朗普表示，战争双方都希望结束战争，但俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京和乌克兰总统弗拉基米尔·泽连斯基都“难以相处”。

“我们已经解决了许多战争，我原以为这场战争可能是最容易解决的，但普京是个难缠的人物，这个人也是个难缠的人物，”特朗普说，他指的是坐在他旁边的泽连斯基。

泽连斯基表示，他想与特朗普讨论“一些非常重要的细节”。

“我相信你会尽一切努力阻止这场战争，”他告诉特朗普。

近几个月来，由于莫斯科的地面推进基本停滞不前，而乌克兰对莫斯科军事后勤和石油工业的袭击又引发了大范围的燃料短缺，莫斯科加大了对乌克兰的空袭力度。

林努斯·霍勒是《防务新闻》的欧洲记者和开源情报调查员。他报道影响欧洲乃至全球的军火交易、制裁和地缘政治。他拥有大规模杀伤性武器不扩散、恐怖主义研究和国际关系三个硕士学位，并精通英语、德语、俄语和西班牙语四种语言。