Zelensky says Trump agreed to Ukraine Patriot licences

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said US President Donald Trump had accepted giving Ukraine licences to co-produce Patriot air-defence systems, in a Fox News interview broadcast Tuesday during Zelensky's trip to Washington.

Zelensky said the systems were crucial for repelling deadly Russian strikes. He said the issue had first been discussed at a NATO summit in Turkey earlier this month, where Trump said Ukraine would be given a licence to produce Patriot interceptors.

“We began it in Ankara to give Ukrainian licenses for the production of Patriot,” Zelensky told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “And today we had good meeting with President Trump. He accepted that he will give us licenses, and then I had meeting with representatives of production, very strong military companies of the United States.”

Zelensky added: “I hope that we will do co-production.”

In the same interview, Zelensky said Russian President Vladimir Putin did not have the initiative in the war, citing what Zelensky described as Russian losses of 30,000 soldiers a month.

“So now Putin is losing 30,000 his soldiers per month...it's many losses, but he doesn't want to stop this war. So now initiative not in the hands of Putin,” Zelensky said.

Zelensky also said Ukraine, Trump and European leaders wanted to stop the war, but said Putin did not.

Zelensky's Washington trip included a meeting with Trump and attendance at the funeral of pro-Ukraine senator Lindsey Graham. He also met US senators about passing wide-ranging sanctions on Russian energy revenues, which the Senate later passed by a wide margin.