US President Donald Trump described the transfer of Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine as a "big step" and mimicked missile interceptions with repeated "bing, bing, bing" sounds.
He said the US has not approved Ukraine's request to manufacture Patriot missile interceptors, citing concerns over sharing advanced military technology.
Ukraine has been pressing for more Patriot systems and local production as Russian missile and drone attacks continue.
US President Donald Trump said he remains in talks over the transfer of Tomahawk cruise missiles and Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine, weapons that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has long sought in the war with Russia. Trump also praised both weapons systems during a cabinet meeting.
Trump said that they have not yet agreed to give out the secrets to those weapons. He said that the complexity of weapons of the US is so high that no one can copy it.
Trump Praises Patriot Air Defences
Trump called the transfer of Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine a ‘big step’ and mimicked theatrically the missile interceptions with repeated “bing bing bing” sounds while praising the system’s effectiveness.
He said, “We have the greatest drones in the world people don't know that. We have the greatest weaponry in the world. We have in the case of President Zelenskyy he'd like to have some Patriots, he'd like to have some Tomahawks which are you know lethal.”
“The Patriot…were big missiles. And they were shot at Jordan and our guys were there bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, five. Big bing, bing, bing, bing,” he said.
Trump also said that the technology of Tomahawk missile is difficult to give away and one has to be judicious about it.
“Tomahawk missile is the most incredible thing. You have to be very judicious, but you have to be very careful. Now we have not agreed to that. We’re talking about it, but it's a hard thing to give away that kind of technology. And I don't think this would ever happen, but you know those people that you give that technology they can someday turn on you. You know that is possible you look in war it's happened a couple of times over the years, right? So we have to be very careful. I mean we guard that,” he said.
No Green Light For Domestic Missile Production
As Russia has ramped up its attacks on Ukraine, the latter has been seeking the Patriot missiles, as per Reuters, which is the only weapon in its arsenal capable of downing ballistic missiles. Zelenskyy sought a co-production agreement for the Patriot PAC-3 missiles to intercept ballistic missiles, in a bid to build it at home.
But during the cabinet meeting, Trump said, “We have the greatest weapons in the world. We have to be very careful about giving out the secrets to those weapons.”
Ukraine Pushes For More Air Defence Support
Zelenskyy in his recent post on X again called for sanctions against Russia and the missiles, “The world has Patriot missiles. What matters now is for our partners to make the political decision to provide the necessary packages. The United States knows what we need.”
Trump’s comments came right after he met Zelenskyy at the White House, where he said the two discussed “Patriot interceptor production and several other ideas”.
Trump had said in early July at the NATO summit in Turkey that Washington would grant Kyiv a license to produce Patriot missiles. This caught many off guard and both sides have been meeting to work on the firmer details, as per Reuters.
Ukrainian Ambassador to the US, Olha Stefanishyna said that she is confident that Lockheed Martin, maker of the PAC-3 missiles, was fully committed to deepening cooperation with Ukraine as talks continue.
