Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said President Donald Trump has made a “final decision” to allow Ukraine to produce Patriot missiles, although the White House has not publicly confirmed an agreement and any new production capacity would take more than a year to establish.

By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that President Donald Trump has agreed to grant Ukraine licenses to manufacture Patriot air-defense missiles, potentially giving Kyiv a long-term domestic source for interceptors it says are increasingly scarce.

Zelenskyy made the claim after his latest visit to the United States, where he again pressed Washington for additional air-defense assistance as Russia intensifies missile and drone attacks against Ukrainian cities.

“At our last meeting, President Trump emphasised to me that yes, I have made a final decision. Ukraine will receive licences for the production of Patriot missiles,” Zelenskyy said in a voice note to journalists.

The White House has not publicly announced or independently confirmed such an agreement.

The claim also marks a potential change from the administration’s position earlier this week, when the State Department said discussions about production licenses were continuing and no final decision had been reached.

Trump had previously expressed support for granting the licenses during a NATO summit in July but subsequently became more cautious about the proposal, saying the United States should be “very careful” before authorizing Ukraine to manufacture the missiles.

Ukraine considers Patriot systems particularly important because they remain the country’s only air-defense platform considered reliably capable of intercepting Russia’s powerful ballistic missiles.

Kyiv has faced an increasingly severe shortage of Patriot interceptors since the United States and Israel entered the war with Iran in February, redirecting supplies of the advanced weapons.

Even if the licensing agreement described by Zelenskyy moves forward, domestic production would not provide a near-term solution.

Establishing the industrial capacity necessary to manufacture Patriot missiles inside Ukraine would take more than a year, leaving Kyiv dependent on existing inventories and foreign deliveries during the coming winter.

Zelenskyy quantified Ukraine’s requirements in August, saying the country needs approximately 5% of U.S. Patriot interceptor production to make it through the winter and about 10% to destroy all Russian ballistic projectiles targeting Ukraine.

Those demands have become more urgent as Moscow modifies its aerial attacks.

Russia has begun deploying newly developed jet-powered drones against Kyiv that have managed to penetrate some of Ukraine’s existing drone-defense systems.

The timing of attacks has also changed. Russian forces previously concentrated many strikes during nighttime hours but increasingly launch drones and missiles during daylight.

One such attack struck Kyiv on Friday morning while residents were traveling to work.

A drone hit a residential building in the capital, killing a 14-year-old boy.

Zelenskyy condemned the strike as “an absolutely savage and sickening strike, devoid of any military logic.”

AFP journalists at the scene reported seeing residents gathered around a multistory residential building where apartments on the ninth and 10th floors had been charred.

Mykyta Sysoyev, a 23-year-old information technology specialist who lives in the damaged building, said an explosion woke him but that he did not initially understand his own building had been struck.

He said he learned what had happened after checking the news.

“My jaw dropped a bit,” Sysoyev said. “It’s strange: on the one hand, I’ve got used to it, but on the other, people are constantly dying.”

Asked about the increasing frequency and sophistication of Russian drone attacks, Sysoyev described the conflict as a race between offensive and defensive technologies.

“This is a technological race and a technological war… Unfortunately, people will suffer while we’re searching for solutions.”

Another deadly strike was reported in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, where authorities said one person was killed during a repeated attack on a postal facility.

The latest attacks underscore the immediate problem confronting Kyiv even if the Patriot licensing agreement is finalized.

Domestic production could eventually reduce Ukraine’s reliance on foreign missile supplies, but the time required to establish manufacturing means Kyiv is still seeking additional interceptors and air-defense support from its allies for the months ahead.

Original article