By Gram Slattery
ANKARA, July 8 (Reuters) – 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 Zelenskiy at the NATO summit in Ankara.
“It’s a defensive weapon, which I like better than an offensive weapon,” Trump said.
Zelenskiy 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-defence interceptors.
While Ukraine’s air defences 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 Zelenskiy 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 Zelenskiy, who was sitting next to him.
Zelenskiy 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.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Gram Slattery; Writing by Katharine Jackson; editing by Michelle Nichols)
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