Kuleba: Ukraine Placates Trump While Quietly Decoupling
SkimNews Take
Kyiv's tactic reframes a weaker party's posture: by accepting limited offers on the surface, it preserves leverage to build capabilities that make future concessions less consequential.
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- Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine's former foreign minister, told FP Live that Kyiv's strategy toward Trump is to "placate, make offers, accept what Trump offers to you" while "quietly continuing the strategy of decoupling" from reliance on US military supplies.
- Trump agreed at the NATO summit in Turkey to license Ukraine to manufacture Patriot interceptor missiles — a request Kyiv first submitted in December 2023, though Kuleba warned production will take years, since Germany and Japan have struggled for years with similar licenses.
- Ukraine now strikes up to 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) into Russian territory using domestically developed capabilities, according to Kuleba, which has ended earlier public fights over German Taurus and American ATACMS missile deliveries.
- Kuleba described Kyiv's mood as "bad," recounting that during a recent attack he heard zero Patriot interceptors fire against Russian ballistic missiles, with Ukrainian air forces officially confirming they had no interceptors left to launch.
- The Iran conflict has consumed roughly a third of US Patriot interceptor stockpiles, per reporting Kuleba cited, and he argued that the war in 2026 and beyond "will be decided in the air" — a race Ukraine is now losing on the defensive side.
- Kuleba called Ukraine a "winner" from the NATO summit in terms of alliance relations, including strong demand for Kyiv at the NATO Defense Industry Forum, though he noted the question of Ukrainian NATO accession is no longer being debated.
Why it matters: Ukraine's depleted interceptor stocks leave Kyiv exposed to weekly Russian ballistic missile barrages that go unchallenged, and the Trump-licensed Patriot production — welcomed by Kyiv — will take years to stand up, meaning the air-defense gap that Kuleba calls decisive for the 2026 fight cannot be closed in time by Western supply alone.
