first time”, to grant a licence allowing Patriot air-defence missiles to be produced on Ukrainian soil, as Kyiv struggles to match the pace of Russian missile and drone attacks.
In an interview broadcast on Ukrainian channel 1+1, Zelensky said Washington’s response marked a clear shift from earlier, non-committal answers to the same request.
“This time, it became quite public that the American team, for the first time, responded positively to the licenses,” he said.
He added that previous replies had amounted to little more than vague assurances that the matter might be considered at some point.
Zelensky said US output stood at around 700 missiles a year, which he described as far short of Ukraine’s needs.
Washington had already transferred manufacturing licences to Germany, he said, where production had begun and from where Ukraine expected to receive 600 missiles under a recently signed contract he called “a good contract”.
The Ukrainian president said US President Donald Trump would also ask American defence companies to set up licensed production of air-defence missiles in Europe and Ukraine, though he gave no timeline.
Final approval, he said, now rested with Trump personally, as the firms involved on both sides of the Atlantic had already agreed.
The remarks followed a letter Zelensky sent in late May to Trump and the US Congress, in which he requested both more Patriot missiles and permission to manufacture them domestically.
In that letter he warned that Ukraine relied almost entirely on the United States for protection against ballistic missiles, the threat he has repeatedly named as Kyiv’s most pressing.
“For us […] there is hardly anything more painful to see than Patriot batteries with no missiles loaded,” he wrote.
The push comes amid a wider shortage of artillery and air-defence stocks across the Ukrainian military, even as Russia sustains long-range strikes on cities and energy sites.
Zelensky has cast the issue as a European one, arguing that the continent has no anti-ballistic system of its own and so remains dependent on American supply.
The question featured prominently at the G7 summit held in Évian, eastern France, from June 15 to 17, where Zelensky met Trump.
In their joint statement, G7 leaders said they were ready to consider extending licences to Ukraine to help raise its military production.
