U.S. Approves $2.1 Billion Sale of 500 Patriot Missiles to Ukraine, but Deliveries Could Take Years

The United States has approved a proposed $2.1 billion sale of 500 Patriot air defense interceptors to Ukraine, the State Department said Friday, in one of the most significant steps to supply defensive weapons to Kyiv since the start of the second Trump administration. The Associated Press reported that the 500 Patriot missiles are being purchased with donations from Canada, Germany and Norway through a U.S. program, and that no American funds are involved. Lockheed Martin is the principal contractor, Reuters reported, and the approval now goes to Congress for review.

"This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by improving the security of a partner country that is a force for political and economic stability in Europe," the State Department said in its press release, as carried in the wire reporting read by this desk.

The approval arrives after weeks of complaints from Ukrainian officials that supplies of the interceptor missiles - among the most important weapons Ukraine has to stop Russian ballistic missiles - were dwindling, and after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned this month that his country had nearly run out of the munition. Zelenskyy said late Friday that deliveries may begin only in a few years, according to the reporting read this run.

That timeline is the hard part of the deal. Weapons sales typically take years to fulfill, and two people briefed on the U.S. decision told Reuters the missiles - which have yet to be manufactured - are not expected to be delivered until a couple of years into the 2030s, long past the winter Ukraine says it needs them for.