Pentagon chief says US has not refused to transfer “Patriot” missiles to Ukraine. They will first check own stocks

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth says the US has not changed its position on Ukraine, and the delay in delivering “Patriot” interceptor missiles is due to the fact that they are first checking whether they have enough of these missiles.

He said this in a comment to reporters.

Hegset says many media outlets are spreading what he calls "false information" about the Ministry of War. He says President Volodymyr Zelensky is aware that they are checking their stockpiles of interceptor missiles.

The Pentagon chief added that the US authorities also did not give orders to restrict the operation of the “Starshield” system for Ukraine. According to him, “SpaceX” can make such decisions independently.

At the end of the conversation with journalists, Hegseth said that "Americans wish Ukrainians success".

• On October 20, The Washington Post reported that the Trump administration has not yet approved the transfer of “Patriot” interceptor missiles to Ukraine from other countries.
• According to the WP, Hegseth has not yet granted such permission. In an interview with Bloomberg, Zelensky said that the United States is supplying Ukraine with only 12 Patriot interceptor missiles per month, about a quarter of the pace under the Joe Biden administration.
• On October 18, Zelensky said that the Ukrainian authorities consider the restrictions on the operation of Starlink and its military version “Starshield” to be a consequence of the decision of the US government.
• According to Zelensky, a signal came from the US government to restrict the operation of the services, after which “SpaceX” technically did it.

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