Zelenskyy on Face the Nation: US Patriot output of 60-65 per month insufficient, requests Ukraine production license
US Patriot interceptor output is 60-65 per month, which Zelenskyy says is not enough for Ukraine plus the Middle East and other US partners. On CBS Face the Nation he confirmed letters to Trump and Congress requesting a license to build Patriots in Ukraine.
Any country waiting on US-supplied air defense is now competing for a Patriot interceptor pipeline that runs at only 60 to 65 missiles per month. Volodymyr Zelenskyy made that point directly on CBS Face the Nation, aired May 31, and said that level of output is no longer sufficient for Ukraine, the Middle East, and other partners Washington has promised to back. Zelenskyy confirmed he has written to the Trump administration and to the US Congress asking for a license to produce Patriot missiles inside Ukraine. He noted that Germany already holds some Patriot production rights and argued Ukraine could similarly add to global supply rather than only consume it. He framed the bottleneck not as a funding problem but as a manufacturing one. The request follows a Russian strike Zelenskyy described as roughly 30 ballistic missiles paired with about 600 Iranian-design drones. He named anti-ballistic interceptors as Ukraine's largest current shortfall and said Patriots remain the most effective defense against Russian ballistic types.