EU says it cannot buy Patriot missiles for Ukraine until Kyiv submits signed contracts

European Commission spokesperson Balazs Ujvari has said Ukraine has not yet submitted signed contracts to the European Commission for the purchase of interceptor missiles for Patriot air defence systems.

Source: Ujvari at a press briefing on 18 September, as reported by European Pravda

Details: Ujvari said the European Commission therefore cannot make the relevant payments from the €90 billion loan through the Ukraine Support Loan mechanism.

Quote: "The Patriots were approved just last week, so what we need to do is to receive the contracts. We don't have those, according to my understanding."

Details: The spokesperson explained that once the contracts are received, the European Commission will be able to "examine them and then we can make disbursements related to that specific equipment" from the defence component of the loan, which is expected to reach €28.3 billion in 2026.

"But probably it's going to come a little bit later since we just approved the Patriot-related product schedules," Ujvari added.

He said that the EU is currently making payments "which relate to the more initial product schedules, which tended to focus a little bit more on drones, on missiles, on fighter jets".

Ujvári said that with today's €3.3 billion payment for drones and missiles, the EU's payments from the defence component of the loan in 2026 reached €11.7 billion.

Background: In her annual address to the European Parliament, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the establishment of a European Security Council involving Ukraine. She also promised Ukraine Patriot missiles and a joint EU-Ukraine missile defence system based on the Freyja project.

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