US President Donald Trump said that Washington needs its own Patriot interceptor missiles, commenting on the possibility of providing additional ammunition to Ukraine. His words were quoted by the BBC.
During a briefing at the White House, Trump was asked whether the US would provide more Patriot missiles after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia had stepped up ballistic missile attacks on Ukrainian cities and that a shortage of interceptors was making it difficult to defend them.
"We need them too," the US president replied. He added that the US stockpile needs to be replenished, as his predecessor Joe Biden provided Ukraine with "a lot of weapons for free".
After his meeting with Zelensky at the NATO summit in Ankara in July this year, Trump said that the US would provide Ukraine with a license to produce Patriot missiles. However, he subsequently repeatedly hinted that this may not happen.
During his recent meeting with Trump at the White House, Zelensky again requested additional interceptor missiles to protect Ukrainian energy infrastructure in the winter. According to world media reports, the US president refused the request.
Earlier, Reuters reported that the US stockpile of some types of missiles had decreased significantly after Washington used them during military operations against Iran, which began in late February this year.