KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he has met in Kyiv with senior representatives of Raytheon, the U.S. company that makes the Patriot air defense systems Ukraine desperately needs to counter the ballistic missiles Russia uses to advance its invasion.
The meeting came less than three weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to give Ukraine a license to produce Patriots. The pledge marked an important shift as Trump recently
has adopted a more positive tone towards Zelenskyy.
In another sign that Ukraine is changing minds in Washington, ardent Trump ally Laura Loomer met with Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Thursday. After years of minimizing the invasion, she rebuked Russian President Vladimir Putin for missile attacks on Ukraine.
The Ukrainian leader said late Thursday he met with a Raytheon delegation, adding that the company was ready to jointly produce Patriot interceptors with Ukraine. The system is made up of radars, command-and-control systems and different types of interceptor missiles.
The company made no immediate comment about the meeting on its website or social media accounts.
“Our teams — both at the government level and from the private sector — will stay in close touch to work (it) out,” Zelenskyy said on social media.
Zelenskyy is keen to move quickly on a coproduction agreement as Russia relentlessly fires ballistic missiles that are hard to stop and cause civilian casualties as well as inflicting huge damage on civilian areas.
Zelenskyy has for several years been pleading for more and quicker Patriot deliveries from Western partners. Ukraine has developed its own innovative air defenses but large-scale production is vital.
Even so, experts and Kyiv officials have cautioned that setting up production in Ukraine would likely take years.
Putin has sought to portray Russia as negotiating from a position of strength in the war as the U.S. engaged under Trump in a diplomatic push to end the war that has produced no results so far.
But since it first attack its neighbor in 2014, Russia has captured only around 20% of the country.
Now, the Russian army’s advance is stalling due to Ukraine’s successful front-line and mid- and long-range attacks using cutting-edge drone technology it has developed at home and that is now coveted by other countries, Western officials and analysts say.
Ukraine has expanded its campaign of disruption with bigger and increasingly frequent drone attacks inside Russia that are hitting high-profile targets, causing fuel shortages and piling pressure on Putin.
Ukrainian forces again targeted the logistical hubs of Wildberries, Russia’s biggest online retailer that is often compared to Amazon, the company’s founder said Friday.
Wildberries logistical facilities in St. Petersburg, the adjacent Leningrad region and in Simferopol in illegally annexed Crimea came under attack, founder Tatyana Kim said.
Photos and videos published by Russian media showed massive plumes of gray smoke rising over St. Petersburg.
Ukraine in recent days struck four other Wildberries warehouses across Russia, sparking massive fires.
Kyiv officials want ordinary Russians to feel the consequences of the war and question whether Putin can keep them safe. The almost daily attacks have caused consternation in Russia.
Ukrainian long-range weapons hit an oil facility nearly 1,350 kilometers (840 miles) from the Ukrainian border as well as a military plant, Zelenskyy said Friday.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported Friday morning that its air defenses shot down 571 Ukrainian drones overnight.
___
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
