US negotiators have quietly kept a deal to let Ukraine help build Patriot interceptor missiles alive, even after US President Donald Trump publicly cast doubt on it, Reuters reported. Four people familiar with the talks said Washington never ordered them stopped. Ukraine, running low on air defenses, urgently wants the missiles to blunt Russia's growing ballistic strikes.

Russian daily drone attacks forced Kyiv to chase air defense from every direction at once, including home-grown interceptors. But this year, Moscow has increasingly turned to ballistic missiles, the hardest weapons for Ukraine to stop. US-supplied PAC-3 interceptors fired by Patriot systems are among the few weapons that can reliably shoot them down, and Ukraine has now run out.

The talks Trump seemed to kill

Last week, Trump appeared to reverse course, telling reporters the US had not agreed to let Ukraine build Patriots and must be "very careful about letting somebody build them." 

According to Reuters, two sources tied that to a tense White House meeting with Zelenskyy. Yet the negotiations pressed on. 

"No order was given to halt the discussions," one source said, adding that talks continued with US arms makers and military officials.

Matthew Whitaker, Washington's envoy to NATO, is leading the drive for a deal. He visited Kyiv last month to weigh options with Ukrainian officials and weapons executives. His spokesperson framed the trip around drone collaboration that would benefit US forces, without naming the Patriot plan. 

A senior administration official told Reuters that any agreement must protect US technology. 

Reuters: The Patriot deal Trump denied is quietly still alive

What Ukraine could build

The options include making Patriot components in Ukraine and shipping them to Germany for final assembly, the sources said. A US official called that the most feasible route. Germany already produces an older Patriot model, and the advanced PAC-3, the newest Patriot interceptor, is expected to follow.

Ukraine could instead join an existing US-European Patriot program, or build a cheaper version of the PAC-3. 

It might also tap Lockheed Martin's new lower-cost interceptor, the PAC-3 ACE, unveiled last month.

A promise made, then pulled back

During a meeting with Zelenskyy in Ankara last month, Trump said the US would license Ukraine to make PAC-3s. His later reversal caught many off guard, including Zelenskyy. In a follow-up call, US Vice President JD Vance assured him that deals between presidents would hold, one source said.

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Reuters: The Patriot deal Trump denied is quietly still alive

Ukraine's clock is running

Even with a deal, Ukraine would not receive newly built interceptors for a year or more. So Kyiv is urging allies to hand over some of theirs and exploring swaps to get missiles sooner. 

Earlier, Zelenskyy warned that Ukraine had run out of Patriots. That day, it intercepted just one of 27 ballistic missiles Russia fired. 

Global stocks of high-end interceptors have shrunk since the Iran war, with Patriots once bound for Ukraine diverted to US forces and Gulf allies.

Estonia will use part of a new European Union loan to arm Ukraine with drones, drawing on a loan worth up to €2.34 billion, according to ERR. The loan will also rebuild its own air defense and ammunition stocks, and all of it must be spent by 2030.

As Moscow continues its all-out war in Ukraine, the EU's northeast is rearming fast, bracing for a Russia that regional military chiefs expect to be combat-ready again within two years.

What the loan buys

Estonia signed the financing deal with the European Commission under SAFE (Security Action for Europe), a €150 billion EU program that raises money jointly on the markets and lends it to member states on cheap terms to fast-track defense spending, its finance ministry said.

A share of Estonia's up-to-€2.34 billion will go to Ukraine as drones. The rest strengthens air defense, buys military vehicles, and refills artillery shells and other ammunition. The credit runs 45 years, and every purchase and delivery must be finished by 2030. Estonia filed its final application in November 2025.

Why the loan helps

Borrowing through SAFE lets Estonia raise money on better terms than it could alone, because the EU issues debt at lower rates. The bloc raises the money jointly and splits it among members. Estonia will hold defense spending above 5% of GDP, and the loan eases the strain that puts on its budget.

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Estonia, a NATO and EU state of about 1.3 million people, shares a 294-kilometer border with Russia and treats Moscow's war on Ukraine as a direct threat to its own security. It has studied that war closely for years and is now racing to rebuild its air defenses and ammunition stocks.

Kadri Peters, a deputy secretary general at Estonia's Defense Ministry, said the fast-changing security situation in Europe demands stronger, quicker defense from the whole alliance. She said large-scale purchases ahead will directly affect Estonia's security and the wider region.

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In July, Estonia and the United States agreed to resume weapons deliveries in the coming months, after a pause tied to the war in Iran, with long-range ATACMS ballistic missiles the exception. In May, Washington had warned European allies of long delays as it drained its own stocks, mainly of HIMARS rocket ammunition and NASAMS air-defense missiles. The same shortages hit Ukraine the hardest: it currently struggles to shoot down Russian ballistic missiles for lack of US-made PAC-3 interceptors.

Estonia has been backing Kyiv since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. It co-leads an IT coalition that has funneled over €1.4 billion into Ukraine's drone programs, and has moved to tap Kyiv's battlefield-tested drone technology for its own forces.