Trump Reverses Position on Supplying Patriot Missile Technology to Ukraine
President Trump told his cabinet that the United States will not provide Ukraine with the technology to produce Patriot missiles, reversing a prior statement made at a NATO summit.
President Donald Trump told his cabinet on Friday that the United States will not transfer the technology needed for Ukraine to manufacture Patriot surface-to-air missiles, reversing a statement he made earlier in July. At a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara, Trump had said the U.S. would "give them the right to make Patriots" and would "show them how to do it."
During the cabinet meeting, Trump said the administration had not reached an agreement and cited the difficulty of sharing such technology and the potential risk that recipients could later use it against the United States. > "We have to be very careful. We guard that," he said.
The shift comes amid concerns from Ukrainian officials that a shortage of Patriot interceptors is limiting their ability to counter Russian ballistic missile attacks.