Trump said Ukraine would get Patriot licenses. Kyiv official says Hegseth still has to sign off.

WASHINGTON — President Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week that he had made the “final decision” to allow Ukraine to produce Patriot missiles — but Kyiv is still waiting for Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to decide what, exactly, the US will license, a senior Ukrainian official said Tuesday.

“The decision has been announced,” the official said, referring to Trump’s approval. But when it comes to actually putting that decision into practice, “the decision still sits with Secretary Hegseth.”

The distinction offers a window into what has happened behind the scenes since Zelensky emerged from his meeting with Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly declaring that one of Ukraine’s biggest military requests had finally been granted.

“There are concrete agreements in place,” Zelensky told reporters Friday. “During our last meeting, President Trump emphasized that, yes, I have made the final decision: Ukraine will receive a license to manufacture Patriot missiles.”

Trump had already publicly floated the offer at the NATO summit in Ankara in July, telling Zelensky that the United States was “going to give a license to you to make Patriots.” He later backed away from that certainty, saying the United States had to be careful about transferring the technology and had not yet agreed to do it.

Last week, Zelensky said Trump had finally settled the question.

But the Ukrainian official said Tuesday that Trump’s approval was effectively the political green light — and that the Pentagon must now determine the practical version of the deal.

“What I know, he indeed said yes, we are moving forward,” the official said of Trump’s conversation with Zelensky. Trump, he added, said he would instruct the Pentagon “to get back to us.”

“For my president, it wasn’t a no. It was a yes,” the official said. “Now the question is when we will switch to the practical results.”

“And it is not there.”

Multiple options are sitting with Hegseth

An interagency U.S. government team has spent months working through possible licensing arrangements and has presented Hegseth with several options, according to the Ukrainian official.

The State Department has been “very active” in the process, the person said, describing an effort involving multiple agencies and dozens of U.S. officials.

“I know that there are several variants that Secretary Hegseth has been proposed by [the] intergovernmental team that was created,” he said.

The understanding is that some may involve allowing Ukraine to manufacture missiles compatible with the Patriot system — without necessarily reproducing the PAC-3 interceptor exactly.

That distinction could prove significant, and it could strike at the heart of arguments against licensing, which tend to involve concerns over sharing intellectual property.

The PAC-3, produced by Lockheed Martin, is particularly important to Ukraine because of its ability to intercept ballistic missiles. But global demand for Patriot interceptors is as enormous as their price tag, and the world is already grappling with limited supplies.

Ukraine, however, may be signaling that it is willing to accept something short of its ideal solution if it can begin expanding its own air-defense capacity.

While it would prefer the incredibly capable PAC-3s, a similar option would “still give us more capabilities to intercept Russian missiles, it is still something,” the official said.

“What is on the table? What is being proposed to us? We will take it. We will assess it, and we are ready to move on.”

But first, Kyiv needs Hegseth to make the call.

“We need to get the decision of Secretary Hegseth,” the official said. “As of now, there is no decision. As simple as that.”

A promise months in the making

Ukraine has been pursuing the licenses for months as its stockpile of Patriot interceptors comes under increasing strain.

Trump first appeared to grant the request publicly at the NATO summit in Ankara in July.

“We’re going to give a license to you to make Patriots,” Trump told Zelensky at the time. “That’s pretty cool. This way, you can’t complain that we’re not giving ’em enough.”

But weeks later, Trump said no agreement had been reached.

“We have to be very careful about letting somebody build them,” Trump said July 31. “Now, we have not agreed to that. We’re talking about it.”

The issue resurfaced during Trump and Zelensky’s UNGA meeting in New York last week. Zelensky subsequently said Trump had made his “final decision” to grant the licenses.

When Trump was asked about Zelensky’s assertion Saturday, however, he did not explicitly confirm it.

“We talked about a lot of different subjects,” Trump said, adding that there was “very strong agreement” on many of them before pivoting to his push for a negotiated end to the war.

The Ukrainian official said there is no contradiction between Zelensky’s account and the lack of a completed licensing arrangement.

From Kyiv’s perspective, Trump made the presidential decision. The remaining question is how the Pentagon implements it.

Trump’s confirmation was important because Ukraine needed “to once again clearly hear the confirmation, and that was the case,” the official said.

“But again,” the person added, “it’s about going to the practical world.”

Trump appears to have made the political decision Ukraine wanted.

Now Kyiv is waiting for Hegseth to turn that “yes” into something it can actually build.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.