U.S. President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that Washington will permit Kyiv to produce missiles for the Patriot air defense system in Ukraine.
"I think we're going to make that deal," Trump said, speaking alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara.
"We're going to give a licence to you to make Patriots," he said. "It's very complex, actually, but ... you'll figure out the complexity quickly."
"Most countries would not be able, they don't have the talent. You have very talented people. So, yeah, I think we're going to make that deal," Trump added, praising the abilities of the Ukrainian armed forces.
The U.S. president, who met Zelenskyy on the sidelines of a NATO summit in the Turkish capital, said he thinks Ukraine will be able to produce the missiles "pretty quickly."
Patriot missiles are regarded as critical to Ukraine's air defences, but Kyiv has repeatedly complained that supplies from its Western allies have fallen short of what it needs to repel Russian attacks.
The war in Iran and Washington's need for the missiles have put additional strain on Kyiv's supply, prompting Ukraine to call for permission to produce the missiles itself.
Addressing the press together, Trump and Zelenskyy appeared to have mended their at-times rocky relationship.
When asked by a journalist if Trump would visit Ukraine, the US president responded jokingly: "I'm not sure the Secret Service would be thrilled," but stated he "would go to Ukraine at the right time."
