Ukraine now gets only 12 Patriot interceptors a month

The United States is now sending Ukraine only 12 Patriot air defense interceptors a month, about a quarter of what Kyiv received under President Joe Biden, and is holding back some missiles Ukraine has already paid for, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. Zelenskyy made the comments in an interview with Bloomberg in Kyiv published on Oct. 18. Under the Biden administration, Patriot missiles reached Ukraine as U.S. military aid, while under President Donald Trump, Washington sells them, with the purchases funded by Ukraine and its European allies. Ukraine paid for weapons, including interceptors for ballistic missiles, through the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List, known as PURL, a NATO-coordinated mechanism under which allies finance American weapons for Ukraine, Zelenskyy said. The U.S. side approved some of those deliveries but not the rest, and he said the holdup was not a technical issue. The Patriot is one of only two Western systems in Ukraine’s arsenal that can shoot down Russian ballistic missiles such as the Iskander-M and the air-launched Kinzhal, alongside the Franco-Italian SAMP/T, which Ukraine operates in much smaller numbers. Each Patriot battery depends on a steady supply of interceptors, and Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said missile shortages force them to choose which cities and facilities to protect. Zelenskyy said he had offered Washington a trade: Ukraine would stop striking Russian diesel fuel facilities if the United States supplied Patriot missiles to protect Ukrainian infrastructure. Ukraine’s long-range drone campaign against Russian refineries has become a point of tension with the Trump administration, which has pressed Kyiv to halt the attacks. In the same interview, Zelenskyy said recent U.S. steps appeared aimed at pushing Ukraine toward capitulation, while saying he was not claiming that was the goal of Ukraine’s allies. He also pointed to restrictions on the speed of Starlink satellite internet terminals used by Ukrainian forces. Ukrainian drone units lost reliable Starshield service, the military version of Starlink, overnight on Oct. 13-14, when terminals stopped holding a connection above about 160 km/h (100 mph). Zelenskyy said earlier this month that the cap left Ukraine unable to intercept some of Russia’s jet-powered Shahed drones, which fly at more than 400 km/h, before speeds were later partly restored. Washington has not publicly given a reason for the pace of Patriot approvals. U.S. production of the PAC-3 MSE interceptor is rising under a multiyear contract with Lockheed Martin, but the missiles are in heavy demand from the U.S. military and allies in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Zelenskyy said he remains in contact with U.S. officials and hopes Washington will approve the remaining paid-for deliveries.