US authorises sale of 500 Patriot missiles to bolster Ukraine’s defence

The United States has approved the sale of 500 Patriot missiles to Ukraine to help it defend against escalating Russian aerial attacks, the BBC reports.

The US State Department said the PAC-3 interceptor missiles would cost $2.1bn and would be “funded entirely” by Kyiv’s allies in Europe and Canada. It added that “no US funds are involved in this sale”.

However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that it could take “several years” for the deliveries to arrive.

Welcoming the announcement on X, he said Ukraine needed the missiles “right now”. He cited “more than 30 Russian strikes” on “critical parts” of the country’s power grid over the past two weeks.

Zelensky said Russian strikes on Friday night left about 200,000 households in the Dnipro region and at least 80,000 in the Kyiv region without electricity.

There is a global shortage of the interceptors, and only 600 are produced each year.