Zelenskyy said the U.S. refused to allow Patriot missile production in Europe

The United States has not approved the production of missiles for Patriot air-defense systems in Europe.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this in an address published on his Telegram channel.

According to him, Kyiv raised the issue of establishing production capacity in Europe for missiles—including for Patriot systems—several years ago.

“There were promises of licenses, but in the end America did not go along with it,” Zelenskyy said.

He added that Kyiv also proposed organizing missile production on Ukrainian territory, but was refused.

Zelenskyy said he has instructed Ukrainian diplomats and Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov to step up work aimed at achieving results on the supply of missiles for Ukraine’s air-defense systems.

On February 9, the Financial Times wrote that Ukraine’s air-defense system is experiencing an acute shortage of PAC-3 interceptor missiles for U.S.-made Patriot systems, which meant that some launchers were effectively idle in January.

According to the newspaper, the shortage was so severe that Patriots could not respond to Russian ballistic-missile strikes, allowing them to hit Ukraine’s energy infrastructure without opposition. The paper quoted Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat as saying that missiles are being used up faster than new Western aid arrives.