UKRAINE, Oct. 19 — The United States supplies Ukraine with only 12 interceptor missiles for the Patriot air defense systems per month. This is four times fewer than under former President Joe Biden’s administration, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, told Bloomberg.

At the same time, the US delayed the transfer agreement of a part of the shipments already paid under NATO initiative, Zelenskyy added.

Ukraine and its partners have paid for the weapons, including anti-ballistic missiles, under the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) program, which allows NATO allies to fund the purchase of U.S. weapons for Ukraine. “The US side has authorized a part of the supplies, while the rest haven’t been. “And this is not a technical issue,” Zelenskyy said.

The Ukrainian President believes that the Trump administration is trying to put pressure on Ukraine in response to the attacks on Russian oil refineries.

“We don’t target Russian diesel, you give us missiles for Patriot systems to protect our [energy] facilities. But they just want us to stop attacking diesel. And if we strike that, they will disconnect us from something,” he said.

Despite these delays, in September, Ukraine received the opportunity to spend around €3.2 billion on the purchase of Patriot interceptor missiles as part of the €90 billion Ukraine Support Loan program for 2026–2027.

The European Commission approved €6.1 billion for Ukraine as part of its overall €90 billion loan, to be used to purchase drones and PAC-3 interceptor missiles for Patriot air defense systems, European Pravda reported.

Yevhenii Khmara, Ukraine’s defense minister, said that Ukraine is signing contracts to supply about 1,000 missiles for the Patriot systems using funds from a European loan, Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported.

Also in September, the United Kingdom provided £100 million for an air defense package that included missiles for the Patriot system, artillery ammunition, and drones, a European Pravda said.

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