President Trump said Wednesday that the US will give license to Ukraine to manufacture Patriot air defense systems to help counter Russian missile attacks, a huge coup for Ukraine which has badly needed the technology for the war now in its fifth year. "We'll give them the right to make Patriots. We'll show them how to do it," Trump said as he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a NATO summit in Turkey. "I think they can produce them pretty quickly." Patriots are expensive, in high demand, and take a long time to produce, reports the AP. Zelensky has for years been asking for more of them, and more recently for a license so that Ukraine can manufacture its own.
The tone of Trump's meeting with the Ukrainian leader was a break from earlier encounters, which ended in acrimony, and Trump praised Zelensky's willingness to reach a deal on ending the fighting in Ukraine. He said the Ukrainian president has "done an amazing job" and "been very effective" in the war. "We've actually developed a good relationship. It's hard to believe," Trump said, adding that he believed a deal on ending the war was on the horizon and that the US would "work on some kind of security package" to provide to Ukraine.
Zelensky made a fresh appeal Tuesday for Ukraine to be allowed to join the alliance, saying Ukrainian armed forces are highly experienced and would only boost NATO's defense capabilities. He's highlighted Ukraine's adaptability and its ability to strike deep inside Russia. He said Ukraine's armed forces are "eliminating" on average 30,000 Russian troops every month. Concern has been mounting among some countries with borders near Russia that Moscow might be preparing a hybrid attack—a combination of conventional warfare with tactics like cyberattacks—on the continent as President Vladimir Putin struggles to secure victory in Ukraine.
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