ANKARA — President Donald Trump said Wednesday he would discuss with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy giving Kyiv a license to produce Patriot air defense systems, floating the idea ahead of a bilateral meeting between the two leaders on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara.
“One of the things we’re going to be talking about is, we’re going to give a license to you to make Patriots,” Trump told Zelenskyy at a press briefing before the meeting. “That’s pretty cool, right?”
The remark appeared to go beyond Ukraine’s urgent requests for more Patriot systems and interceptors as Kyiv tries to defend its cities against Russian missile barrages.