Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said President Donald Trump will allow the country to manufacture Patriot missiles, a key request Kyiv was making to fend off continued Russian attacks.
Speaking to press on Friday, Zelenskyy said there are "concrete agreements in place" related to the matter. "During our last meeting, President Trump emphasized that, yes, I have made the final decision: Ukraine will receive a license to manufacture Patriot missiles," he said.
The interceptors are among the few weapons capable of taking down ballistic missiles, which Moscow has been consistently launching over the course of the war. Kyiv has been sustaining more hits recently as it experiences a shortage of such interceptors.
Zelenskyy has also used his time in the U.S. to call on Donald Trump to send Ukraine a "winter package of Patriot missiles." It is unclear whether that request was granted.
The Ukrainian president then asked his U.S. counterpart to organize a trilateral meeting with him and Vladimir Putin.
In a social media publication after his meeting with Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, Zelenskyy said he is ready to end the war but he is not sure whether Moscow "is ready as of today."
He went on to propose an "energy ceasefire if they do not attack our energy system, our electricity, heating, and water supply." And called for Trump to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping so he can put pressure on Putin to organize a meeting.
Trump called for an end to the war this week, saying "The whole World suffers as 25,000 people, mostly soldiers, are being killed each month."
He also said Russia has "unfortunately lost control" of its diesel industry as Ukraine keeps hitting energy infrastructure.
In a social media post, Trump said that a "large number of their Diesel refineries have been blown up and are, at least temporarily, out of commission."
The U.S. Congress recently passed the Lindsey Graham bill into law, named after the late Republican senator and staunch Ukraine ally. It sanctions Putin, senior Russian government officials as well as the Russian "shadow fleet", a clandestine network of ships which Russia uses to move crude oil while bypassing sanctions by G7 and EU countries.
