U.S. President Donald Trump said the United States needs more missiles for its own stockpiles while expressing optimism that negotiations aimed at ending the war in Ukraine are making progress.
“We want missiles too,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked whether Washington would respond to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s repeated requests for additional Patriot air defense missiles and longer-range weapons.
Trump said negotiations over the war in Ukraine are moving forward but acknowledged that deep hostility between Moscow and Kyiv remains.
“We’re working on it, and I think we’re making progress. It’s a brutal war, a very brutal war. There’s a lot of hatred,” he said, according to Euronews.
The U.S. president argued that the previous administration’s extensive military assistance to Ukraine had affected American stockpiles and said the U.S. arsenal is now being rebuilt.
According to a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the U.S. military has fewer than 1,000 Patriot interceptor missiles and fewer than 250 THAAD missiles.
Trump nevertheless insisted that the United States is not facing a general weapons shortage, saying that while certain types of munitions are in shorter supply, production is increasing every day.
He added that U.S. defense companies are building new facilities to manufacture Patriot and Tomahawk missiles.
Trump also commented on tensions with Iran, saying he believes the conflict “cannot last much longer.”
