Zelensky Claims ‘Final Decision’ Made To Let Ukraine Build Patriots, After Trump Reversed Pledge

Back in July President Trump strongly signaled that he was greenlighting the ability of Ukraine to produce its own patriot anti-air defense missiles. Trump declared in the context of a Turkey-hosted NATO summit that Washington would give Ukraine “the right to make Patriots” - after Zelensky had been relentless in his requests, framing it as urgent and for the protection of cities and civilians.

But since then there’s been denials and ambiguity surrounding the pledge. President Trump had at the time of the summer NATO summit admitted the risks involved, also while trying to press ahead to get the warring sides to the peace table, conceding, ”It’s an escalation but it’s also an escalation that can help lead to an end [of the war].”

On Friday while attending the UN General Assembly meeting in New York, Zelensky told journalists that the White House has made its ‘final decision’ to okay the Patriot production scheme.

The Ukrainian leader claimed: “At our last meeting, President Trump emphasized to me that yes, I have made a final decision. Ukraine will receive licenses for the production of Patriot missiles.”

However, the White House has yet to affirm this, and hasn’t issued comment on Zelensky’s latest assertions. It seems premature, and a ploy to pressure Trump into agreeing.

The Guardian reviews that Trump had publicly backed down from the Patriot plan by mid-summer:

Donald Trump has backed off a promise to let Ukraine manufacture its own Patriot air defense interceptors, telling reporters that handing over the underlying technology was “a hard thing to give away” during a cabinet meeting at Camp David.

The retreat, billed by the White House as “something different” for the cabinet to experience together, was the first such meeting at the presidential compound of Trump’s second term.

It also became the venue for the US president to unpick, in real time, a commitment he made to Volodymyr Zelenskyy just a few days earlier.

Asked whether he was ready to grant Kyiv a license to build Patriots domestically – something he had suggested at a Nato summit in Turkey just this month, and which the Ukrainian president described as a productive topic in their White House meeting on Tuesday – Trump was noncommittal.

“We have not agreed to that,” Trump had said at the Camp David meeting, reversing course. “We’re talking about it, but it’s a hard thing to give away that kind of technology.”

Trump had said that an interceptor can go “8,600 miles an hour” – and that “Nobody else has that capacity” – strongly suggesting that he’s averse to giving away such technology to a foreign ally.

Zelensky reveals the number of Patriot missiles fired during Iran War:

Just between us, PAC-3 missiles in the Middle East — the countries there have used about 800 or more missiles during these attacks.

Ukraine has never had that many missiles during all this time to repel… pic.twitter.com/WUz9E4hait

— Clash Report (@clashreport) March 5, 2026

But now Zelensky is claiming that Trump has reversed once again on the issue. Again, there’s nothing at all indicating that this is what has come from the White House, in any official capacity.