EU countries call to let Ukraine buy American Patriots

BRUSSELS, Belgium — Nine EU countries have co-signed a letter demanding that the bloc allow Kyiv to spend its 90 billion euro ($103 billion) loan on non-European defense equipment such as Patriot missiles, and to do so quickly.

The letter, signed July 2 but made public on July 7, calls on the EU's top diplomat Kaja Kallas and Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius to not wait for ongoing "mapping exercises" and "market studies" and instead approve Ukraine's spending plans without delay.

"This will help keep Ukraine in the fight and support it in protecting human lives," the letter reads.

Kyiv has been subject to more frequent missile attacks in recent weeks, as Russia exploits Ukraine's lack of sufficient air defenses to try and bomb civilians into submission.

While Ukraine has become a world leader in drone defense technology, missiles move at greater speeds and are harder to intercept. The number of defense systems able to do intercept ballistic missiles is small, production lines have been slow to scale, and in the case of the U.S.' Patriot missiles, stocks have been depleted and diverted as a result of U.S. President Donald Trump's attacks on Iran.

Because of this shortfall, President Volodymyr Zelensky has lobbied Trump to grant Patriot production licenses to Ukraine and other European countries, and he made Patriots a key theme in his message congratulating the U.S. on its 250 years of independence.

And Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov called on allied countries to immediately dispatch their Patriot missile stocks to Ukraine to grant Kyiv city dwellers some respite.

In theory, Ukraine can also pay for its own defenses. The EU approved its $103 billion in support in April, two-thirds of which will cover Kyiv's projected defense expenditures until the end of 2027.

That money must be spent on defense products, as opposed to other items such as soldiers' salaries, and ordinarily, 65% of the value of the components in every product must be sourced from Ukraine or EU countries.

The new letter mentions several specific defense products by name, including PAC-3, the missiles fired by Patriot interceptors, and the ATACMS supersonic tactical ballistic missile. Both are produced by the U.S. defense company Lockheed Martin, which would not therefore be eligible under the Ukraine Support Loan.

However, Kyiv can request derogations from that rule where there is urgent time pressure or a lack of viable solutions on the domestic and European markets.

In April, the European Commission granted its first such derogation to Ukraine, allowing it to source cheap Chinese components for its drones.

However, the procurement rules are the result of a hard-fought negotiation among EU capitals, precisely because some member states want to break Europe's dependence on American equipment.

At the time of publication, the Commission had not yet replied to a request for comment by the Kyiv Independent.