Trump explains his doubts over allowing Ukraine to produce missiles for Patriot air defence systems

US President Donald Trump, commenting on the possibility of allowing Ukraine to produce interceptor missiles for Patriot air defence systems, said that the United States "[has] to be very careful" on the matter.

Source: Trump during an open Cabinet meeting, as reported by European Pravda

Details: Trump reiterated that he has not yet made a final decision on whether to grant Ukraine licences to produce missiles for Patriot systems.

He argued that the US has "the greatest weaponry in the world", so the country has to be sensible when it comes to granting other countries permission to manufacture them.

"In the case of President Zelenskyy, he would like to have some Patriots. He would like to have some Tomahawks, which are lethal – one offensive, one defensive," the US president said, before going on to describe the power of these weapons.

"Nobody's ever seen anything like it. You have to be very judicious, but you have to be very careful. Now we have not agreed to that. We're talking about it. But it's a hard thing to give away that kind of technology. And I don't think this would ever happen," Trump added.

The US president then raised the possibility that countries granted licences by the US to produce its weapons could turn against Washington.

Quote: "These people that you give that technology to, they can someday turn on you. You know, that is possible. If you look at war, it's happened a couple of times over the years, right? So we have to be very careful."

Background:

• In early July, on the sidelines of the NATO summit, Trump told Zelenskyy that the US would give Ukraine the right to manufacture Patriot systems.
• Trump's comments expressing uncertainty over granting the licences came just two days after he met Zelensky at the White House. During the meeting in Washington, Zelenskyy asked Trump to urgently provide a package of interceptors for Patriot air defence systems.
• Zelenskyy also said that during the White House meeting with the US president, they discussed licences to manufacture Patriot interceptors and "some other ideas that could help".

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