EU cannot purchase Patriot missiles for Ukraine because Kyiv has not submitted signed contracts
Ukraine has yet to submit signed contracts for the purchase of interceptor missiles for Patriot systems to the European Commission. As a result, the EU cannot make the corresponding payments from the €90 billion loan.
European Commission spokesperson Balázs Ujvári said this, Censor.NET reports, citing European Pravda.
European Commission awaits contracts
Ukraine has not yet submitted the contracts for Patriot interceptors to the European Commission for review. The purchases are to be financed through the €90 billion Ukraine Support Loan.
"The Patriot purchases were approved only last week, so what we need to do is receive the contracts. We do not have them, as far as I know," he said.
According to Ujvári, once Brussels receives the contracts, it can review them and make payments for the equipment from the defence portion of the loan, which is expected to reach €28.3 billion this year.
"But this will probably happen a little later, since we have only just approved the product schedules relating to Patriot," Ujvári clarified.
The EU is currently making payments under earlier delivery schedules, mainly for drones, missiles and fighter jets, the spokesperson added.
Zelenskyy’s remarks
- In the summer of 2026, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticised delays in implementing agreements to purchase Patriot air defence systems. He gave officials one week to complete the preparatory steps, warning of "serious personnel decisions" otherwise.
"The task is absolutely clear: speed up work on this Patriot contract. The officials involved are personally responsible. Funds from the €90 billion European support package for Ukraine, along with our other financial resources, must be put to work as quickly as possible on the tasks that protect Ukrainians’ lives. I have set a final deadline of one week for all preparatory steps. I expect a report on Friday: either clarity on implementing our Patriot agreement or serious personnel decisions," the president said.
- The meeting at the time was attended by representatives of Mykhailo Fedorov’s Ministry of Defence, the Foreign Ministry, the National Security and Defence Council, and the Presidential Office’s diplomatic team.
- Fedorov subsequently sent letters to nearly 40 partner countries, asking them to urgently supply Ukraine with missiles for Patriot air defence systems from their existing stocks that same month. He proposed exchanging missiles from those stocks for future deliveries contracted for Ukraine.
- In April, Zelenskyy warned that arms deliveries to Ukraine could decline if the war in the Middle East continued.
Background
- EU member states received Ukraine’s request to use several billion euros from the €90 billion loan to purchase PAC-3 missiles for Patriot air defence systems.
- The European Commission previously received from Ukraine a list of weapons on which it plans to spend the bulk of the €6 billion remaining in the defence portion of the loan. Most items on the list are equipment made in Ukraine and the EU, primarily drones.
- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy previously said Ukraine had agreed with the US on monthly deliveries of Patriot interceptor missiles. He also spoke of a shortage, saying Ukraine needs to receive at least around 5% of US production of these missiles to get through the winter.
