Vladimir Zelensky has complained that the much needed interceptors will not arrive soon enough
The US State Department has green-lit a $2.1 billion Patriot missile sale to Ukraine.
The announcement follows a report by CNN earlier this month that Kiev had completely exhausted its stockpile of US-made interceptors used to defend against Russian missile and drone strikes at military-related targets.
The State Department said in a statement on Friday that the Ukrainian government had requested that Washington sell it 500 Patriot PAC-3 missiles and spare parts for launchers.
Kiev will pay for the interceptors with funds donated by Canada, Germany, and Norway, the State Department said. “No US funds are involved in this sale,” it added.
The principal contractor for the deal will be Lockheed Martin, according to the statement.
“There will be no adverse impact on US defense readiness as a result of this proposed sale,” the department stressed.
The US depleted much of its Patriot missile stockpile during the war with Iran, which was widely reported by American media and confirmed in a Pentagon inspector general’s report last month. A separate Congressional Budget Office assessment said that the Pentagon had consumed between one-half and two-thirds of its inventory of certain missile-defense interceptors since June 2025.
However, US President Donald Trump has downplayed the shortages, claiming that American stockpiles are virtually unlimited.
Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky reacted to the State Department announcement in a post on X, saying that he was grateful to Trump and that 500 Patriot missiles was “a substantial number.”
However, he complained that “it has been stipulated that deliveries may begin only in a few years,” while Kiev needs the interceptors “right now.”
Zelensky claimed US and European countries currently have “sufficient stocks of PAC-3 interceptors in their warehouses,” urging Washington to find a solution that would see them supplied to Ukraine immediately.
“The Russians are attacking our energy infrastructure every single day. In just these past two weeks of October, there have already been more than 30 Russian strikes on critical parts of our power grid,” he said.
On Saturday, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said that Russian forces had conducted more drone attacks against logistics and energy infrastructure supporting Ukraine’s war effort. Among other things, a heating and power plant in Kiev and workshops used for production of UAVs and weapons’ parts in Kharkov were hit, according to the ministry.
Moscow says that the strikes are being carried out in response to Ukrainian terrorist attacks on residential areas and civilian infrastructure inside Russia, to which Kiev resorts in order to compensate for setbacks on the front line.
