Zelensky: Trump agreed to grant Ukraine licenses to produce Patriot missiles

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said today (Friday) that US President Donald Trump informed him that he had decided to allow Kiev to produce Patriot air defense missiles, after a long debate and response on this issue, according to what was reported by Agence France-Presse.

Ukraine faces a shortage of these missiles that are reliably capable of confronting Russian ballistic missiles, the launch of one of which killed a 14-year-old boy in the capital, Kiev, on Friday.

During his visit to the United States this week, Zelensky renewed his calls for air support and Patriot missiles.

He said in an audio recording to reporters, days after his meeting with Trump in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly: “In our last meeting, the President assured me that he had made a final decision. “Ukraine will obtain licenses to produce Patriot missiles.”

In July, Trump said it would be "very great" to grant Ukraine such permits, before backtracking, saying the United States should be "very careful" before granting Ukraine such a permit.

Ukraine confirmed that it has suffered from a severe shortage of Patriot interceptor missiles since the United States and Israel launched a war on Iran in February, which led to the diversion of supplies of these advanced defense systems.

But even if licenses are granted, building industrial capacity will take more than a year and will not meet Kiev's immediate needs.

Kyiv renewed its calls for urgent support ahead of the winter.

Last month, Zelensky said that Kiev needs 5 percent of the United States' stock of Patriot interceptor missiles to survive the winter, and 10 percent of them to destroy all Russian ballistic missiles.

“A brutal and horrific strike”

Russia is targeting the Ukrainian capital with newly developed jet drones, and has succeeded in bypassing some Ukrainian interceptor systems.

After Moscow mainly targeted Kiev during the night hours, it now launches many attacks in broad daylight.

While people were on their way to work on Friday morning, a drone hit a residential building in the city, killing a 14-year-old boy.

Zelensky condemned the attack, describing it as a “brutal and horrific strike that has nothing to do with any military logic.”

Agence France-Presse journalists at the scene saw residents gathering around a multi-storey building, with apartments on the ninth and tenth floors damaged by the attack.

Outside the damaged building where he lives, Mikita Sysoev (23 years old) said that he woke up to the sound of an explosion, but he did not realize that the strike had targeted the building until after he saw the news.

He added: “I was very surprised. It's strange. On the one hand, I have become accustomed to the strikes, but on the other hand, deaths continue to occur.”

In response to a question about the increase in drone strikes, he said: “It is a technological race and a technological war... Unfortunately, people will suffer, while solutions are sought.”

In the Odessa region (south of the country), a person was killed in a new strike targeting a postal facility that had previously been targeted, according to the authorities.