The United States is now delivering just 12 Patriot missiles a month to Ukraine, about a quarter of the number sent under former president Joe Biden. That figure sits at the center of a feud between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky that, according to a Bloomberg report, is starting to weaken Ukraine’s ability to defend itself.
Zelensky told Bloomberg News on Oct 18 that Trump was trying to pressure Kyiv into surrendering to Moscow. A day later he said Washington was delaying Patriot deliveries Ukraine has already paid for. Ukrainian officials also suspect the US is at times restricting intelligence sharing and early warnings about Russian ballistic missiles. Zelensky has accused the US of throttling access to SpaceX’s Starshield satellite technology as well. Trump has denied ordering disruptions to the Starlink service Ukraine uses against Russian air attacks.
Trump’s side
The president and his administration have openly criticised Zelensky. On Oct 19, Trump said “somebody else” should negotiate for Ukraine, a day after he went after Kyiv in a long post over its strikes on Russian energy sites. “Russia frankly has been fine on Ukraine,” he told reporters. “They haven’t been doing much.”
Asked whether the relationship was fundamentally broken, Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave no direct answer. Trump, he said, is “willing to do whatever he can to try to bring it to an end, even if that means having to nudge both sides to get there.”
Interceptors running low
Under Trump, Washington sells the missiles to Ukraine; Biden gave them away. Mark Cancian, a former US defence budget expert now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, estimated the US inventory at about 800. The Pentagon, he said, worries about what operations in the Middle East may still need, and about a potential conflict with China.
Justin Logan of the Cato Institute was blunt. “It’s going to be a long, dark, cold winter,” he said. “It’s almost November, their interceptor stockpiles are close to zero, the Europeans’ ability to replenish them is limited because inventories are limited.”
The latest flare-up was set off by Trump’s decision earlier in October to strike a deal with Russia on diesel exports and to waive congressionally mandated sanctions on Russian energy. Ukraine’s long-range drone campaign against Russian refineries is another sore point. Bloomberg also reported that the administration has tried to steer blame for rising energy prices away from the Iran war, which the US started, and toward the fighting in Ukraine, ahead of the Nov 3 midterms.
Europe and NATO step in
A person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that senior NATO officials fear the relationship could be beyond repair and could push Ukraine into a painful settlement. NATO has urged Kyiv to de-escalate, and that person said US arms deliveries, financed mainly by Europeans through the PURL programme, could eventually suffer if it does not. NATO secretary-general Mark Rutte wants to lower the temperature, a NATO official said.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned on Oct 19 that Putin wants to undermine democracy in Europe, not only to defeat Ukraine. Zelensky was due to meet Trump envoy Steve Witkoff in Oslo for peace talks, with Jared Kushner joining remotely.
