The administration of the US President Donald Trump has still not approved the transfer of “Patriot” interceptor missiles from other countries to Ukraine.
This is reported by The Washington Post, citing an American official and three other sources familiar with the situation.
This concerns at least some of the “Patriot” missiles that the allies are ready to transfer to Ukraine. Since these missiles are manufactured in the United States, their further transfer must be approved by Washington.
According to WP, the US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has not yet granted such permission. At the same time, he has not formally rejected the transfer and continues to approve some other types of American aid to Ukraine.
A Ukrainian official told the publication last week that Ukraine had “only a few “Patriot” interceptor missiles left in its stockpile. President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that the US is supplying Ukraine with only 12 “Patriot” interceptor missiles per month. All this comes against the backdrop of a worsening relationship between Ukraine and the US.
What preceded
On October 9, Trump reported that he had reached an agreement with Putin to supply Russian diesel to the American and global markets. Zelensky called these agreements “a weak decision by strong partners”.
Earlier, the American president asked Zelensky to stop hitting oil refineries in Russia, because, according to him, this leads to an increase in diesel fuel prices. He also stated that world fuel prices are increasing due to the war between Russia and Ukraine. FT wrote that the US threatened to block arms sales to Ukraine and the exchange of intelligence because of the strikes on Russian refineries.
Last week, Ukraine received no warning about two ballistic missile attacks: on October 12, when Russia attacked six Ukrainian energy facilities in one day, and on October 14, when the Russians struck all three thermal power plants in Kyiv. According to media reports, the situation repeated for the third time on October 18, when Russia struck Kyiv with ballistic missiles.
Donald Trump himself denied that the US had stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine. On October 18, Volodymyr Zelensky reported that the US had resumed sharing intelligence with Ukraine.
In addition, on October 17, Trump suspended the “hell of sanctions against Russia” law, which gave the right to impose tariffs on countries that buy Russian energy. Trump explained his decision by saying that he did not want to do anything that could push Russia away from negotiations to end the war.
Zelensky said this could indicate a “political decision to slow down support” for Ukraine. Trump, in turn, again criticized the Ukrainian president for the strikes on Russian refineries and said that perhaps it was “time for Kyiv to find someone else to negotiate with”.
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