Trump Confirms Ukraine Can Build Patriots as Summit Closes
As the NATO summit in Ankara formally concluded, President Trump confirmed the United States will let Ukraine manufacture its own Patriot air-defence systems — “we’ll show them how to do it… we’ll bring the company here” — reversing years of American resistance. The alliance pledged around €70bn for Ukraine’s defence. Moscow condemned the licensing decision, which follows a week in which Russian ballistic missiles struck Kyiv largely unopposed.
A manufacturing licence changes the strategic arithmetic rather than the immediate stockpile: Patriots have been built only in the United States and, under licence, Japan, so equipping Ukraine to make its own would answer the interceptor shortage the week’s strikes exposed — if the technology transfer is genuine and quick, both still unproven, and the systems are years from a production line. That Trump paired it with encouragement for Ukraine to keep hitting Russian refineries marks a sharper pro-Kyiv turn than his summit arrival suggested, delivered in the same days he tore up his own Iran ceasefire. Watch the licence’s terms, how fast production could realistically begin, and Moscow’s response beyond words.