‘Testing is now underway’: Zelenskyy confirms progress on major US defense deals

KYIV, Ukraine — The United States is already testing Ukrainian-made aerial and maritime drones and has given Kyiv “very positive feedback,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday, the clearest sign yet that a long-stalled drone-production deal with Washington worth billions is moving ahead.

The confirmation came a day after U.S. President Donald Trump at the NATO summit in Ankara pledged the U.S. would give Ukraine a license to build its own Patriot interceptors , a long-sought goal for Kyiv as a global shortage of the missiles and intensifying Russian strikes leave its cities exposed.

Zelenskyy stopped short of tying the license to the multibillion-dollar drone deal, presenting the two as separate tracks working towards the same general goals.

“There are some documents that have already been signed so that the American side can receive from Ukraine various types of systems in which the United States is interested for testing,” Zelenskyy said in response to a question by Military Times.

“And they are receiving these from us.”

Kyiv pitched the multibillion-dollar drone partnership to Washington more than a year ago and has waited for a sign-off that never came, with U.S. officials publicly cool on it as recently as last month.

Zelenskyy’s account that the testing is underway and going well is the first real movement on the deal in months.

He named “aerial drones, maritime drones and other technological items” as the systems already changing hands.

“That testing is now underway, and that we are receiving very positive feedback, is a fact,” he said. “After this, we will move to another, next stage, to the drone deal.”

The full drone deal , a partnership Zelenskyy has valued at $35 billion to $50 billion, would reportedly set up a 50-50 production venture with the U.S. drawing on up to 200 Ukrainian companies.

But that deal remains unsigned, held up for months awaiting Trump’s approval.

Zelenskyy pointed to Ukraine’s wartime standing, calling its defense industry “at NATO level, and already one of the best” and saying Kyiv is “ready to share our own development and technologies.”

Days before the summit, the cost of the shortage was written in the rubble of Kyiv after Russia fired 68 missiles and 351 drones at Ukraine overnight, according to Ukrainian Air Force officials.

The shortage that makes a Ukrainian Patriot line so appealing sharpened this spring, when the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran burned through American interceptor stocks.

Gulf defenses fired as many as 1,430 Patriot interceptors in 39 days, a CSIS analysis found, draining inventories Ukraine had counted on.

By late April, Ukrainian crews were rationing mid-attack, firing one interceptor at incoming ballistics instead of the standard two to four to stretch what remained.

Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said the Patriot force was down to a “starvation ration,” according to Euromaidan .

Even while minimizing the use of interceptors, Ukrainian air defenses downed roughly 92% of the Shaheds Russia launched in May, according to the Air Force, and cheap interceptor drones now do more of that work.

Ukraine built 100,000 of those drones in 2025 and doubled the pace in the first four months of 2026.

By the time Zelenskyy proposed a formal “Drone Deal Initiative” at NATO’s Ankara summit on July 7, several countries had already signed bilateral drone agreements with Kyiv.

He also arrived with a NATO intelligence assessment endorsed by all 32 members that Russia could invade a member state by 2029.

Ukraine’s mission chief to NATO, Alyona Getmanchuk, told allies in Brussels on July 2 that Ukraine helps guide the alliance’s only joint center , red-teams its war games and has a record number of members backing its membership.

She cast Ukraine not as an aid recipient, but as the only NATO partner actually implementing the alliance’s Strategic Concept and backed by drone-export permits, testing deals and combat-proven systems.

The Patriot license and the drone testing deal are the first fruits of a budding relationship between equals, officials hope.

“Everyone respects our army, everyone respects the country, everyone respects our technology companies,” Zelensky noted. “We are ready to share our own development and technologies.”

Katie Livingstone is the Ukraine correspondent for Defense News and Military Times. Based in Kyiv, she has covered Russia's full-scale invasion since its first days. She is a former Fulbright fellow whose award-winning work has appeared in outlets across Europe and the U.S.

乌克兰基辅——乌克兰总统泽连斯基周四表示，美国已经开始测试乌克兰制造的空中和海上无人机，并向基辅提供了“非常积极的反馈”。这是迄今为止最明确的迹象，表明与华盛顿之间一项价值数十亿美元、长期停滞不前的无人机生产协议正在取得进展。

就在美国总统唐纳德·特朗普在安卡拉举行的北约峰会上承诺美国将向乌克兰颁发许可证，允许其建造自己的“爱国者”拦截导弹的第二天，这一消息得到了证实。由于全球导弹短缺和俄罗斯袭击加剧，乌克兰的城市面临威胁，建造“爱国者”导弹一直是基辅梦寐以求的目标。

泽连斯基并没有将无人机许可证与数十亿美元的无人机交易直接挂钩，而是将两者描述为朝着同一总体目标努力的独立途径。

泽连斯基在回答《军事时报》提问时表示：“一些文件已经签署，以便美方可以从乌克兰获得美国有兴趣进行测试的各种系统。”

“而他们正是从我们这里收到这些的。”

基辅一年多前向华盛顿提出了这项价值数十亿美元的无人机合作计划，但一直没有得到批准，美国官员甚至在上个月公开表示对此不太感兴趣。

泽连斯基表示测试正在进行中并且进展顺利，这是几个月来该协议取得的第一个真正进展。

他列举了“空中无人机、海上无人机和其他技术产品”作为已经易手的系统。

他说：“测试工作正在进行中，我们收到了非常积极的反馈，这是事实。之后，我们将进入下一个阶段，也就是无人机交易阶段。”

据报道，泽连斯基将无人机项目整体估值定为 350 亿至 500 亿美元，该项目将与美国建立一家 50-50 的合资生产企业，并吸纳多达 200 家乌克兰公司。

但这项协议至今仍未签署，因等待特朗普的批准而搁置数月。

泽连斯基指出乌克兰的战时地位，称其国防工业“达到北约水平，而且已经是最好的之一”，并表示基辅“准备分享我们自己的研发成果和技术”。

据乌克兰空军官员称，峰会召开前几天，俄罗斯一夜之间向乌克兰发射了 68 枚导弹和 351 架无人机，基辅的废墟上已经写满了武器短缺的代价。

今年春天，美国与以色列和伊朗之间的战争消耗了美国的拦截导弹库存，使得乌克兰“爱国者”导弹系列产品极具吸引力，而这种短缺问题也变得更加突出。

战略与国际研究中心 (CSIS) 的一项分析发现，海湾国家的防御系统在 39 天内发射了多达 1430 枚爱国者拦截导弹，耗尽了乌克兰赖以生存的库存。

到四月下旬，乌克兰机组人员在攻击过程中开始实行弹药配给，为了节省剩余弹药，他们只发射一枚拦截弹来拦截来袭弹道，而不是通常的两到四枚。

据 Euromaidan 报道，空军发言人尤里·伊纳特表示，爱国者导弹部队的弹药已经只剩下“勉强维持生存的口粮”。

据美国空军称，即使乌克兰防空部队尽量减少拦截机的使用，也击落了俄罗斯在 5 月份发射的约 92% 的“沙赫德”无人机，而现在廉价的拦截无人机承担了更多这类任务。

乌克兰在 2025 年制造了 10 万架此类无人机，并在 2026 年前四个月将速度提高了一倍。

7 月 7 日，泽连斯基在北约安卡拉峰会上正式提出“无人机交易倡议”时，已有数个国家与基辅签署了双边无人机协议。

他还带来了一份由北约 32 个成员国共同认可的情报评估报告，该报告指出俄罗斯可能在 2029 年入侵某个成员国。

乌克兰驻北约代表团团长阿廖娜·格特曼丘克7月2日在布鲁塞尔告诉盟国，乌克兰帮助指导北约唯一的联合中心，为其战争演习进行红队演练，并拥有创纪录数量的成员国支持其成员资格。

她将乌克兰描绘成唯一一个真正落实北约战略概念、并获得无人机出口许可、测试协议和实战验证系统的北约伙伴，而不是援助接受国。

官员们希望，爱国者导弹许可证和无人机测试协议是双方平等关系萌芽的初步成果。

泽连斯基指出：“每个人都尊重我们的军队，每个人都尊重我们的国家，每个人都尊重我们的科技公司。我们愿意分享我们自己的研发成果和技术。”

凯蒂·利文斯通是《防务新闻》和《军事时报》的乌克兰特派记者。她常驻基辅，自俄罗斯全面入侵乌克兰之初便开始报道此事。她曾是富布赖特学者，其获奖作品发表于欧洲和美国的多家媒体。