Ukraine has waited "nearly a month" for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to sign off on delivering vital air defense missiles to Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said, as Russia continues to hammer the country with drone and missile strikes.
Ukrainian officials are attempting to source interceptor missiles fired by the U.S.-made Patriot system from several countries, Zelensky said, adding he had asked Ukrainian officials "to raise this with the American side once again."
Analysts say Moscow is hoping to take advantage of Kyiv's desperate shortage of expensive and scarce Patriot missiles to target Ukraine's vital energy infrastructure as the austere winter conditions start to set in.
But between years of donations of Patriot interceptors to Ukraine, concerns across Europe about possible Russian attacks on their own soil and the toll of the U.S.-led war with Iran, U.S. officials are worried about American stockpiles as defense companies struggle to meet the surging demand for air defenses.
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Patriot is currently the only real option Ukraine has to intercept ballistic missiles, although it has other systems to knock out cruise missiles and to take down drones.
In a statement to Newsweek, a senior Pentagon official said there had been "no change to Department of War policy regarding any capabilities we are enabling Europeans to provide to Ukraine."
"The Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) initiative, through which NATO allies and partners provide commensurate contributions for U.S.-provided defense articles and services, continues unaltered," the official said.
Kyiv's need for particularly American-made systems comes as relations between the countries fray. Ukraine is frustrated with temporary curbs to Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet system and its military-grade parallel service, Starshield, while President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized Zelensky.
Ukrainian officials said limits imposed earlier this month had now been lifted, but had hampered Ukraine's ability to launch medium-range drone strikes on Russian assets and complicated Ukrainian defenses against incoming Russian drone assaults.
Meanwhile, the U.S. denied cutting off intelligence flows to Ukraine which alert Kyiv to missile strikes on its major cities, and Zelensky has said Ukraine is being pressured by the U.S. to negotiate with Russia on a peace deal. Three-way talks have been scheduled for next month.
Hegseth, who has pushed for Europe to provide the bulk of aid for Ukraine, said last week the U.S. hadn't changed its stance on aid for Ukraine, but U.S. stockpiles were a priority. His comments came shortly after The Washington Post reported Patriot deliveries for Ukraine from third countries with missile stocks were stalled and required Hegseth's sign off.
Zelensky said last week Kyiv had only received 24 interceptor missiles in the previous three months, while Russia recently fired 30 ballistic missiles at Ukraine in a single night.
Ukraine would need an average of 350 Patriot interceptors each month, Zelensky told ABC News, shortly after appealing to European leaders for a "winter package" of aid, including around 300 Patriot missiles.
Zelensky said on Monday Ukraine was also waiting on NASAMS deliveries, referring to the medium-range National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System.
Russia attacked Ukraine with 140 drones and three missiles overnight, Kyiv's air force said on Monday. A Ukrainian energy site was damaged in Russian strikes on the western Khmelnytskyi region late Sunday, local officials said.
Despite Trump's objections, Ukraine has continued to attack Russian oil refineries with long-range drones, hoping to cut off revenue funding the war effort for the Kremlin.
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What Are Patriots, NASAMS?
Patriot air defenses are credited with taking out even Russia's most advanced weapons before they strike Ukraine, like fast-moving ballistic missiles.
It's a ground-based system made by U.S. defense giants Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, usually consisting of missiles, launchers, radar sets, power generators, control stations and antenna masts. Patriot is an acronym for Phased Array Tracking Radar to Intercept on Target.
The PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement, or MSE, is the newest Patriot missile and works by physically knocking out an incoming threat. Each interceptor missile for a system like the Patriot typically costs several million dollars.
Effective but rare, Patriot systems deployed in Ukraine have been attractive targets for Moscow. Russia has periodically said it has destroyed or damaged components belonging to the handful of Patriot systems Ukraine has received.
National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, or NASAMs, operate at shorter ranges, usually against aircraft, slower-traveling cruise missiles and drones.
NASAMS was jointly developed by Raytheon and by the Norwegian company Kongsberg. The system can fire different types of missiles to knock threats from the sky, including Raytheon's Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM).
Its developers say NASAMS have been deployed around Washington, DC for more than 20 years, and can also operate in extreme conditions, like the Arctic or the desert.
The U.S. government, under then-President Joe Biden, first authorized sending two NASAMs systems to Ukraine in mid-2022, several months after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of its neighbor. By the start of the Trump administration, the U.S. had sent a dozen NASAMS batteries to Ukraine.
Contact Newsweek editors for this story: Robert Greenall and Matthew Robinson