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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that agreements on "technical aspects" still need to be reached before Ukraine can start producing missiles for Patriot systems.

The Ukrainian president was speaking after meeting his US counterpart Donald Trump on the sidelines of the NATO summit on Thursday in Ankara.

Trump announced in a press statement in the presence of Zelensky on Wednesday that he would allow Kyiv to manufacture missiles for these systems, which are essential for intercepting Russian ballistic missiles targeting Ukraine.

Zelensky said in an audio message responding to journalists' questions that Ukraine and the United States have reached a political-level agreement on licenses to produce Patriot interceptor missiles, and that both sides still have work concerning technical details.

He added: "After our agreement with Trump, our teams, diplomats, and the ministries of foreign affairs and defense now need to finalize all remaining technical details."

Zelensky also stated that Ukraine will receive important PAC-3 interceptor missiles from the United States in the coming days.

He described his meeting with Trump as "constructive," even though the relationship between the two men had been tense for a long time.

Trump did not discuss the conditions or timeline for granting a license to manufacture PAC-3 missiles for Patriot systems. It remains unclear whether Ukraine has the capacity to manufacture these expensive missiles in the near term.

Zelensky said on Thursday that he wants to work on acquiring this capability "as soon as possible, and start production in Ukraine."

However, manufacturing these missiles on Ukrainian soil will take several years and will not meet Kyiv's urgent needs, especially with the war in the Middle East depleting US stockpiles.

According to the US research center FPRI, manufacturing a PAC-3 MSE missile takes 24 months, while its engine takes 30 months.

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