The United States has approved the sale of 500 Patriot missiles to Ukraine, a munition Kyiv badly needs to defend against escalating Russian air attacks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned, however, that it could take “several years” for the deliveries to arrive.

Cost and funding

The US State Department said the advanced PAC-3 interceptor missiles would cost $2.1bn (£1.6bn). It said the purchase would be funded entirely by Ukraine’s allies in Europe and Canada.

According to the statement, Ukraine will pay for the purchase with donations from Canada, Germany and Norway through the JUMPSTART programme, along with national funds financed by the European Union’s Ukraine Support Loan. The department said the principal contractor would be US company Lockheed Martin and that “no US funds are involved in this sale”.

Urgent need for interceptors

On Friday night, Zelensky repeated his calls for the US to speed up the release of Patriot systems, which he described as the only effective weapon against Russia’s ballistic missiles. In a post on X, he welcomed the announcement but said Ukraine needed the missiles “right now”.

He said Russia had intensified attacks on key energy infrastructure ahead of winter, with “more than 30 Russian strikes” on “critical parts” of Ukraine’s power grid over the past two weeks. Earlier this week, he said Ukraine had been waiting almost a month for the US to approve the missile supplies, and that the country was running critically low.

Delivery timeline unclear

It is not clear what the production schedule will be. It is understood the order is for new missiles rather than existing stock, which makes rapid delivery to Ukraine unlikely. The US Department of Defense has said only 600 Patriot missiles are produced per year, and production takes a long time.

Kyiv’s need is compounded by a global shortage of these munitions, which has been driven in part by US use of them in its war against Iran.

Background

The latest move follows a dispute between Zelensky and US President Donald Trump earlier this month, after the US eased sanctions on Russia as part of a deal to secure Russian diesel. Trump has said it is time for Ukraine to get a new leader in order to reach a deal to end the war. Tensions eased after Zelensky held talks with US envoys in Oslo on 20 October.

Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, after earlier seizing Crimea and parts of the Donbas region in the east.

In July, Trump said Washington had “not agreed” to license Ukraine to produce Patriot missiles, three weeks after offering the country such a right.