Poland proposes joint Patriot missile production with Ukraine and US

President Donald Trump said during a NATO summit in Ankara this month that the U.S. would grant Ukraine a license to manufacture Patriot missile interceptors, a huge boost for Kyiv, which had long sought permission to produce the defensive weapons.At the time, two sources told Reuters the new interceptors would likely be manufactured in Germany or another European country, to avoid providing a target for potential Russian strikes in Ukraine.On Thursday, Polish Deputy Defence Minister Magdalena Sobkowiak-Czarnecka said Warsaw had offered to collaborate with Kyiv and Washington to ensure production could take place somewhere safe.“The offer I presented today on behalf of Poland addresses certain concerns raised by the American side,” she told reporters.“We proposed a trilateral cooperation - involving the United States, Ukraine and Poland - because the priority is securing the production process and ensuring it takes place in a safe location.”The United States also said in Ankara that it would establish a maintenance facility for Lockheed Martin’s LMT.N advanced PAC-3 air defence missile for the Patriot system in Europe.Sobkowiak-Czarnecka said she had also put forward arguments for locating this facility in Poland.Poland has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine’s war effort since Russia invaded in 2022, but relations between the neighbours have been strained by disputes over history.Tensions came to a head in June when Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki stripped Volodymyr Zelenskiy of the country’s top honour after the Ukrainian president caused outrage by renaming an army unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), nationalists who massacred Poles during World War Two.(Reporting by Alan Charlish and Anna Pruchnicka; Editing by Susan Fenton)