Zelenskyy says Kyiv has waited nearly a month for Hegseth to approve Patriot missiles

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday that Kyiv had been waiting almost a month for US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to approve the transfer of missiles for both the Patriot and NASAMS air-defence systems.

In a social-media update on weapons supplies, Zelenskyy said he had instructed his team to raise the issue with Washington again. "We are working on several tracks – with the United States, Europe, and other partners that have stocks of PAC-2 and PAC-3 missiles," he wrote, adding that he had been "waiting for nearly a month for Mr. Hegseth to sign off on missiles for Patriots and NASAMS."

Zelenskyy said Russian forces had fired 48 missiles at Ukraine over the past week, along with around 1,600 guided aerial bombs and close to 2,300 attack drones.

Global munitions stocks have come under significant pressure from the US war in Iran. A US Department of Defence inspector-general report published in September said American forces had fired $22.3 billion worth of munitions from the start of Operation Epic Fury in late February through the end of June. Ukrainian military colonel Yurii Ihnat said in an interview published Monday that the number of Patriot missiles used in the Middle East could have supported several years of combat operations in Ukraine.

Ukraine receives the majority of its Patriot missiles through NATO's Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List initiative. As of June 2026, allies had committed to funding more than $6 billion of defence equipment for Ukraine through that scheme.