US President Donald Trump commented on his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyʼs request for interceptor missiles for Patriot air defense systems. According to him, these missiles are needed by the US itself.
Trump said this at a press conference at the White House.
Journalists asked Trump if Washington was ready to transfer long-range missiles or additional Patriot batteries to Ukraine.
In response, the American president said that the United States also needs missiles. He again placed responsibility for reducing ammunition stocks on the administration of his predecessor, Joe Biden.
"When Biden helped Ukraine, he gave them $300 billion in ammunition. When I left office, our stockpiles were fully stocked. And he gave away a lot, and now we are replenishing them," the US president said.
When asked about the increased Russian attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine, Trump said that the United States is not directly involved in the war and is geographically distant from it, saying that “we are separated by an ocean”. At the same time, he “pains to see young people dying”.
- On July 29, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that during his last meeting with Trump at the White House, he asked him to provide Ukraine with an emergency “winter package” of 300 Patriot interceptor missiles. The media reported that Trump refused, in part, due to a shortage of these missiles in his own country.
- Later, at a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council on August 5, Zelensky confirmed that Ukraine had received a refusal from its partners to transfer additional anti-ballistic systems. He did not rule out that this could be due to Ukraine being "more accommodating".
- According to the president, in the first half of 2026, the supply of missiles for Ukraineʼs air defense from partners decreased by three times compared to last year. The official reason, which the partners informed Kyiv, was the hostilities in the Middle East.
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