Ukraine reaches agreement on new package of missiles for Patriot air defense systems, Zelenskyy says

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that an agreement had been reached on a new package of missiles for Patriot air defense systems.

The head of state announced this during a meeting with representatives of the Ukrainian community in the United States, Censor.NET reports.

Aid to Ukraine

At the same time, the president did not specify which country would provide the new package of air defense missiles.

"Today, we reached an agreement, I will not say with whom, on a package of missiles for Patriot systems. This is an important decision," Zelenskyy said.

The president also noted that Ukraine’s participation in events held as part of the UN General Assembly had helped strengthen international support. According to him, Kyiv signed a security agreement with Australia, the first such agreement with a country outside NATO and the European Union.

Background

European Union member states received Ukraine’s request to use several billion euros from a loan totaling EUR 90 billion to purchase PAC-3 missiles for Patriot air defense systems.
Earlier, the European Commission received from Ukraine a list of weapons on which it plans to spend the bulk of the EUR 6 billion remaining in the defense portion of the loan. Most of the items concern equipment manufactured in Ukraine and the EU, primarily drones.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy previously said that Ukraine had reached an agreement with the United States on monthly deliveries of interceptor missiles for Patriot systems. At the same time, he said there was a shortage of these missiles: according to him, Ukraine needs to receive at least about 5% of US production to make it through the winter.
Back in August, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine needed at least 300 Patriot interceptors to make it through the winter and proposed that the United States sell Ukraine 5–10% of its reserves: "America could replenish its stockpiles, and we would be able to survive the winter."
On July 31, US President Donald Trump, commenting on the possibility of authorizing Ukraine to manufacture interceptor missiles for Patriot systems, said the United States "must be very careful" on this issue.
The US State Department said that a decision on granting Ukraine licenses to produce missiles for Patriot systems had not yet been made.
Following his meeting with Trump in New York, Zelenskyy said that the US leader had a "positive attitude" toward granting Ukraine a license to manufacture missiles for Patriot systems. Zelenskyy noted that launching production of Patriot systems in Ukraine could take approximately one to one and a half years.