<p >Speaking to the Washington Post, Ukrainian officials have reported that the United States is not expected to provide further MIM-104 Patriot long range air defence systems as aid. The U.S. “will not give it away for free,” but could sell systems to Ukraine either for hard currency or for concessions. “They think like business people. If I give you something, you have to give me something in return,” the Post cited an official as saying. The Patriot is by far the most costly and high value weapons system operated by Ukraine, and is exported by the U.S. for approximately $2.5&nbsp;billion per system, although some sources have cited a cost of $1.5 billion. The Ukrainian leadership has made extreme demands for transfers of Patriot systems on a tremendous scale, with President Volodymyr Zelensky repeatedly calling for transfers of 20 or more systems. "We need 20 of these systems, and this is definitely $35 billion. If the U.S. gives us $35 billion in the form of Patriot systems, we will consider them to have invested them. We, in turn, are ready to invest the same amount on our part," he stated in February.</p><p ><img src="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/m/articles/2025/05/28/article_68368312369b20_76209882.jpeg" title="Missile Batteries From Patriot System" ></p><p >Commenting on President Zelensky’s request to purchase ten such systems, which would cost $15 billion at the most conservative estimate, U.S. President Donald Trump observed in early April: “He’s always looking to purchase missiles… Listen, when you start a war, you got to know that you can win the war, right? You don’t start a war against somebody that’s 20 times your size, and then hope that people give you some missiles.” “There is a Patriot system, and you have a lot of them, and you have production,” the Ukrainian leader told Trump at the time. “There are several steps to protect Ukraine. Step number one: one system that costs one and a half billion dollars; we are ready to buy at least 10 systems to cover some cities, only civilians, and city centres where people are crowded… We will find this money, and we will pay everything,” he added.</p><p >The United States was he first to pledge to provide Patriot systems to Ukraine on December 22, 2022, after which it was closely followed by Germany and the Netherlands. The first&nbsp; system was reported to have&nbsp;<a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/ukraine-first-pac3-german-difference">reached</a>&nbsp;Ukraine on April 18, 2023, with subsequent deliveries being made by multiple countries across NATO. The dispatch of the systems as aid was a highly unexpected development, and they were long expected to be highly vulnerable to Russian missile attacks. Questions were also&nbsp;<a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/ukraine-patriot-2024-congress-risks">widely raised</a>&nbsp;by experts regarding Ukraine’s ability to absorb Patriots, which required over a year of personnel training, fuelling speculation that the systems would rely heavily on support from Western contractor personnel to function.</p><p ><img src="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/m/articles/2025/05/28/article_683682333823e0_49207178.png" title="Ukrainian Patriot System Milliseconds Before Iskander Strike"></p><p >The United States has struggled with shortages of Patriot air defence systems for its own forces, which has reduced the likelihood of providing the systems to Ukraine on concessional terms. As early as April 2024, assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Jake Sullivan <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/no-more-patriot-ukraine-stocks" target="_blank">confirmed</a> that the United States would be unable to provide new Patriot systems to Ukraine, despite recent requests from President Zelensky for “at least seven”new units. “The U.S. Patriot systems right now are being deployed around the world, including in the Middle East, to protect U.S. troops,” Sullivan stated.“If we can unlock further American Patriot batteries we would send them. But we are doing a lot of the supplying of the actual missiles that go into those batteries that get fired,” he added. The deployment of new Patriot and THAAD systems to the Middle East from October the previous year had&nbsp;brought to light the&nbsp;<a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/airdefence-shortage-forces-danger" >tremendous and growing strain&nbsp;</a>on the country’s air defences worldwide.&nbsp;</p><p >Although&nbsp;Sullivan noted that&nbsp;officials were working to arrange for allied European countries to provide their own air defence assets to Ukraine,&nbsp;European NATO members’ inventories of the systems have also been seriously diminished, leaving little room for further transfers. On April 9, 2024, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock confirmed regarding her own country’s capacity: “Unfortunately, the stocks, especially our own Patriot systems, are now pretty much exhausted. Therefore I made it clear at a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting that we need to check the availability of all Patriot systems in Europe and globally, and that we will make every effort to obtain these systems for Ukraine.”</p><p ><img src="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/m/articles/2025/05/28/article_6836cf7c6b59b4_16869833.jpg" title="Surface to Air Missile Batteries From German Patriot System"></p><p >A possibility remains that Washington could agree to supply Patriot systems in exchange for concessions relating to access to Ukraine’s natural resources, mirroring the mineral deal signed in late April that provided the United States with special access to the Eastern European state’s minerals, oil, natural gas and other hydrocarbons in exchange for continued military support. It remains highly questionable whether delivery of additional Patriot systems will have a significant impact on the ongoing conflict, as the systems have continued to provide highly vulnerable to Russian missile attacks and taken losses at a considerable rate. Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Igor Ignat on May 26 <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/patriot-effectiveness-questioned-ukrainian-air-force" >highlighting</a> the system’s shortcomings intercepting attacks by Russia’s primary tactical ballistic missile system the Iskander-M, observing: “The Iskander missiles perform evasive manoeuvres in the final phase, thwarting the Patriot’s trajectory calculations… In addition, the Iskander can drop decoys capable of fooling Patriot missiles.” His statement follows the release of footage over more than a year confirming the destruction of multiple Patriot systems in separate Iskander-M strikes.</p>
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