President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has met US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker and Lieutenant General Curtis Buzzard, commander of the NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine mission, to discuss the defense of Ukraine's sky.
The second is production: implementing Trump's decision, announced at the Ankara NATO summit on 8 July, to grant Ukraine a license to build Patriot systems. This promise was made without a named manufacturer or timeline.
The country's interception rate against ballistic missiles was roughly 40% in June, against 89% for air threats overall, and Russia's massed strikes continue nightly.
He also awarded Buzzard with the Order of Merit, Third Class.
Zelenskyy names interceptors the key priority
"A good conversation, above all, about how to protect the Ukrainian sky through increased supplies of interceptors for Patriots within PURL. Right now, this is the key priority, because Russia's massed strikes do not stop," Zelenskyy said.
The sides also discussed the bilateral defense partnership, including the realization of the Ankara licensing decision and the Drone Deal.
"This has real potential, and we hope to finalize it soon," Zelenskyy said of the latter.
Presenting Buzzard's award, Zelenskyy thanked the general for standing with Ukraine through the years of aggression.
"Ukraine is grateful to President Trump, the US Congress, and the American people for their support," he said.
License needs implementing, and the interceptors can't wait for it
The meeting's two Patriot tracks run on different clocks. A production license, even implemented smoothly, yields missiles years out. PURL deliveries are the near-term supply, drawing on existing American production that runs around 700 PAC-3 interceptors a year against a Ukrainian need its officials put far higher.
Meanwhile, Russia builds roughly three Iskander-M ballistic missiles a day, and July's massed attacks on Kyiv have repeatedly included ballistic and hypersonic missiles that only Patriots reliably engage.
