Zelenskyy Says Patriots Are Waiting

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused the US administration of delaying Patriot interceptor missiles that Ukraine says are ready for transfer and already financed by European allies.

According to DW, Zelenskyy told US senators that the Pentagon was holding up deliveries, including one shipment that he said only required the signature of US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. He also said some Patriot missiles offered by European partners could not move without US approval.

That is a specific allegation about the use of authority, not a complaint about pace in general. If accurate, the delay would sit inside Washington’s export and transfer controls, even where the money and the hardware are no longer the problem.

Zelenskyy’s claim lands amid a visible deterioration in relations between Kyiv and Washington. DW reports that President Donald Trump has eased sanctions on Russia and has publicly criticised Zelenskyy, saying someone else should negotiate for Ukraine. The dispute is no longer confined to tone. Ukraine is pointing to concrete military systems and saying the hold-up is operational.

Zelenskyy also said Ukraine again failed to receive early warning about incoming Russian ballistic missile strikes. Ukraine relies heavily on US intelligence to detect fast-moving launches, and DW reports that Russian strikes on Kyiv and surrounding areas cut electricity to more than half a million households. Zelenskyy linked the absence of warning to another overnight attack, though the excerpt does not establish why the warning failed.

Washington rejected part of his account. DW reports that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States had not paused intelligence sharing with Kyiv. Trump has also denied ordering restrictions on Starshield, the SpaceX military satellite network that Ukrainian communications and drone operations depend on. Concerns over access remain in circulation, but the available account here is a denial, not proof of a cutoff.

What matters immediately is narrower and more testable than the wider political theatre: whether Patriot interceptors that Zelenskyy says are available have in fact been stopped by a US decision. The missiles either have approval to move or they do not. Zelenskyy says they are waiting. The US excerpted response addresses intelligence sharing, not the missile shipment itself.