Trump is now no longer ‘certain’ that he wants to grant Ukraine a licence for the essential Patriot systems

US President Donald Trump spoke to Edward Luce of the Financial Times and told him that he is not sure whether his administration will grant Ukraine a licence to manufacture Patriot missiles: “It is a truly extraordinary weapon and we need to be a little cautious when deciding who to grant a licence to. Granting licences for US military equipment is not something we do.” Trump’s statement to the Financial Times came two days after his meeting at the White House with Volodymyr Zelensky – a meeting described as “good” by the Ukrainian president, during which they discussed “the production of Patriot interceptors and a few other ideas” and in which Trump had confirmed his intentions regarding the licences. In early July, at the NATO summit in Ankara, Trump had announced his intention to grant Ukraine a licence to produce the Patriots; this had been the big news of the meeting and the news the Ukrainians had been hoping for: For months, Zelenskyy has been explaining that Ukraine has skilfully, ingeniously and generously built its reputation as a reliable ally of America and the West, and that it has found a way to defend itself with its own weapons against Russia’s ongoing aggression, but that Vladimir Putin’s ballistic missiles can only be intercepted by the Patriots. Now Trump says that his envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, will be travelling to Kyiv – he says this as if it were a concession: so far they have only been to Moscow – but that “we want the war in Ukraine with Russia to end: I’m not looking for missiles, I’m looking for peace”. With the most fickle president in history, we have to start from scratch every time.