Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday said that US President Donald Trump had told him he had made the "final decision" to allow Ukraine to produce interceptor missiles for the Patriot air defence system.

"At our last meeting, President Trump emphasised to me that 'yes, I have made a final decision, Ukraine will receive licences for the production of Patriot missiles'," said Zelenskyy, according to AFP.

The update comes weeks after Trump walked back his pledge to grant Ukraine a licence to manufacture Patriot interceptors.

The development comes as Ukraine has nearly run out of Patriot interceptors. The shortage has allowed an increasing number of Russian missiles to pass Ukraine's air defence grid. In recent months, taking advantage of Ukraine's shortage of interceptors, Russia has stepped up its missile barrages and increasingly targeted civilian areas and critical infrastructure. Russian bombardments are expected to intensify further during the winter to maximise suffering.

Observers have said that such attacks on civilians and critical infrastructure, including electricity and heating facilities, are intended to break the Ukrainian spirit and push the public to pressure Zelenskyy into accepting Russia's maximalist terms.

While Zelenskyy has pushed for a licence to produce Patriot interceptors, it would not address Ukraine's immediate need for the missiles as it would take several months —perhaps more than a year— to put into place the infrastructure, staff, and supply chains required for production. Ukraine is developing its own anti-ballistic missile system, Freya, and hopes to hold off attacks using a mix of interceptors until domestic production of Patriot interceptors begins.

Last month, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine had just 10 per cent of the interceptors needed to counter Russian missile attacks and stressed that 5 per cent of US interceptor stocks could help Ukraine defend itself against Russian attacks through the winter.

"This year, we have two and a half times less interceptors than we had in 2025. Russia has two times more ballistic missiles per month than they had before. Each night you have attacks, and four or five times per month we have massive attacks—terrible nights. Very heroic, very resilient people really but they [are] tired," Zelenskyy added.