US ‘Counting On’ Europe to Hunt for More Air Defenses, as Zelensky Pleads For Patriots

WASHINGTON DC – The United States hopes that the UK and other European countries will be willing to step up and lead a fresh bid to chase down more surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) for Ukraine in the coming days, a senior US administration official told Kyiv Post Tuesday evening.

The topic will be discussed “through different settings - both during bilateral meetings with various European allies, as well as at the leaders-level discussion at the G7 summit in Canada,” the official said.

“We are always looking at possible ways to accelerate the search for additional air defense systems for Ukraine,” the official added.

In March, US President Donald Trump agreed to assist Kyiv in finding additional air-defense systems available in Europe.

The topic has gained mainstream attention recently, and urgency, with Ukraine pleading for more air defenses as Russia has been stepping up its drone and missile attacks on Kyiv and other cities, targeting mostly civilian infrastructures.

As Kyiv has been clamoring for more air defenses, European officials say they’ve been trying to scrape together a Patriot battery or two from spare parts scattered across the continent. The highly advanced Patriots have played a crucial role in protecting the Ukrainian sky. However, according to them, the US still reserves the final word in green-lighting their transfer to Ukraine.

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The US believes that the UK, which is a manufacturer of its own air defense systems that are already used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), could help “take a fresh look” at hinting additional SAMs throughout - and beyond - the European continent.

Kyiv Post has learned from diplomatic sources that British Foreign Secretary David Lammy is planning to visit Washington in the coming days to discuss further steps to help Ukraine with Trump officials.

“Russia is setting appalling new records with their brutal drone and missile attacks on Ukraine. More strikes overnight on Kyiv and Odesa, more civilian lives lost and a maternity hospital hit,” Lammy noted in a social media post on Tuesday. “With partners we will ramp up the pressure to force Putin to agree to a ceasefire,” he added.

Regarding the White House position on selling more Patriots to Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky recently said that Trump officials had yet to respond to his proposal to purchase the advanced systems.

On Tuesday, State Department officials declined to comment on Kyiv’s request to purchase Patriots.

“I can’t speak to the details of purchase decisions or negotiations about what we’re going to allow to be purchased by an ally. That is the Department of Defense, effectively,” Spokesperson Tammy Bruce told Kyiv Post’s correspondent.

In the meantime, she went on to add, “What I do know is what the President [Trump] has said and what the Secretary of State [Marco Rubio] has said in a number of venues, is that we’ve been Ukraine’s biggest supporter and defender, literally, is that we want them to have surface-to-air missile protections. We want them to be able to deal with incoming missiles.”

Bruce then emphasized: “We know that it’s been discussed about our European partners, who have those systems - from us to get them to Ukraine. There’s a number of different negotiations and aspects involved in this kind of dynamic that do not involve the State Department.  It’s about munitions and purchasing and all of that.” Bruce also made it clear that she would “certainly dispute” that the US is not letting Ukraine “do something - the opposite has always been the case,” as she put it.  

“Our goal is to make sure that this war comes to an end, and we continue to focus on that,” she concluded.

When asked by Kyiv Post about President Zelensky’s latest claims that the Trump regime has redirected 20,000 rockets promised to Ukraine to the Middle East, the spokesperson said she didn’t have the authority to comment on this matter: “If such a decision was made, it is not something I am going to comment on here.”