U.S. approves $2.1 billion sale of Patriot interceptors to Ukraine

The Trump administration approved the sale of $2.1 billion in Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine on Friday, the State Department said in a statement. The State Department said 500 Patriot missiles are being purchased for Ukraine with donations from Canada, Germany and Norway through a U.S. program and that no American funds were involved. “This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by improving the security of a partner country that is a force for political and economic stability in Europe,” the department said in a news release. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said repeatedly in recent weeks that Patriot missile systems are essential for defending against Russian attacks. “Our soldiers have been very strong this year. Then we really build, try to build air defense shield to defend our civilians, but always a big deficit with Patriot missiles and other kind of air defense,” Zelenskyy told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” two weeks ago. The Ukrainian leader had accused the Pentagon of delaying the delivery of the interceptor missiles that other countries have purchased for Ukraine. The announcement of the sale comes as President Donald Trump has recently ramped up criticism of Zelenskyy and described him as an obstacle to efforts to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. Zelenskyy also recently noted that Ukraine was left further exposed because of restrictions on the Starlink satellite internet service. Ukraine said Saturday that both Starlink, run by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, and its military variant, Starshield, were fully functional after a long outage, two days after Trump indicated Musk had been asked to “put it back.”