The European Union is calling on member states to provide Ukraine with Patriot missiles from their own reserves, calling strengthening Ukraineʼs air defense an absolute priority.
This was stated by European Commission spokeswoman Anita Gipper at a European Commission briefing, reports Babelʼs correspondent in Brussels.
According to her, the European Unionʼs High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Kaia Kallas, has appealed to all member states that have the relevant missiles in stockpiles to provide them to Ukraine. She is also in regular contact with EU governments to increase the volume and speed of ammunition supplies to Kyiv.
In addition, the European Union is accelerating joint arms procurement procedures through the SAFE program, in which Ukraine is also involved.
Patriot missiles for Ukraine
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 because of the shortage of these missiles in the United States.
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 in order for Ukraine to become “more compliant”.
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. Trump also stated that the United States itself needs these missiles.
In early July, at the NATO summit in Ankara, the US president announced that Washington would grant Kyiv a license to produce Patriot missiles. However, he later noted that the US “has to be very careful” about allowing Ukraine to produce Patriot missiles. As of July 31, he had not yet made a final decision on whether to grant Ukraine such licenses.
The Telegraph reported that Trump changed his decision to transfer Patriot missile production licenses to Ukraine due to concerns that these technologies could fall into Russian hands.
On August 5, Reuters reported that despite Trumpʼs public statements, US Vice President J.D. Vance assured the Ukrainian leadership in a telephone conversation that the agreements remained in effect.
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