President Trump has zigged and zagged when it comes to Ukraine, blowing hot and very, very cold in his support for the country in the war against Russia.
That helps explain why expectations were low for Mr. Trump’s Wednesday meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey. It also helps explain why Mr. Trump’s surprise announcement that the United States would license Ukraine to produce Patriot air-defense systems has been cheered with a heavy dose of caution.
“I can give such promises, too,” said Yevhen Prusak, 35, serving coffee in his cafe in Kyiv, the capital, which has boarded-up windows from a Russian strike. “Words are not actions,” he added. “When he will actually give it, I will say, ‘Well done.’”
The surface-to-air Patriot defense systems — mobile, sophisticated and American-made — are Ukraine’s only real defense against Russian ballistic missiles. The systems consist of advanced radar, a control van and missile launchers, which fire interceptor missiles. Mr. Zelensky’s government has been pleading for more of the interceptor missiles, which are in short supply.
“Trump rages at allies but hands Ukraine a win,” a prominent headline about the Patriots announcement read on the Kyiv Independent website on Thursday.
Many in Ukraine were warily watching the meeting between Mr. Zelensky and Mr. Trump on Wednesday, given that their relationship has been fraught.
Mr. Trump, who once claimed he could end the war in 24 hours, has described the Ukrainian leader as a “dictator without elections,” called him ungrateful and berated him in the Oval Office. Meanwhile, Mr. Trump has repeatedly praised President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, even echoing some of his demands.
While the Trump administration had pushed to broker a settlement between Russia and Ukraine, those talks stalled, and the White House has shifted focus to the war with Iran. Last month, Mr. Trump said the United States had “nothing to do with” the war in Ukraine.
Ukrainians have grown accustomed to Mr. Trump’s erratic foreign policy and apparent mood swings. The country has become more self-reliant, bolstering its domestic weapon industry and signing deals to share its drone expertise with other countries.
Mr. Zelensky has taken steps to distance Ukraine from the country that was once its biggest ally. He has publicly criticized the United States in recent months for being distracted by Iran and for suspending sanctions on some Russian oil, and he has called the pace of weapon deliveries from the United States too slow.
But the tone of their meeting on Wednesday was relaxed, with Mr. Zelensky sitting impassively as Mr. Trump spoke at length about a number of subjects, including Mr. Putin. Then Mr. Trump said the United States would give Ukraine a license to make Patriots.
“That’s really cool, right?” Mr. Trump said. “This way you can’t complain that we’re not giving them enough.”
So what prompted Mr. Trump’s apparent shift toward support for Ukraine? Analysts said it might have been recent headlines about Kyiv’s successful mid- and long-range strike campaigns against Russian forces.
“If I understand President Trump’s logic, he always wants to be on the winning side,” said Viktor Shlinchak, the head of the Institute of World Policy, a research group. “And right now, it does not look like Ukraine is losing.”
He said he interpreted Mr. Trump’s announcement about Patriot licenses primarily as a political signal to the Kremlin.
“If it is indeed implemented, it will be a compelling reason for Putin to accept a new reality, one in which Ukraine is not left to face the aggressor alone,” he said.
Patriot systems are complex and time-consuming to manufacture. It could be years before Ukrainian production bears fruit, which is why many who welcomed the news also urged more immediate assistance.
Razom, a nonprofit group supporting Ukraine that has offices in the United States and in Ukraine, hailed it as a “landmark decision that will save lives, strengthen U.S. interests and help bring Russia’s war to an end.”
“While producing Patriots would give Ukraine a strong shield for tomorrow, it also needs ammunition for tonight,” Melinda Haring, a senior adviser at Razom, said in a statement. “A sustained, uninterrupted flow of interceptors through existing programs is crucial to fulfill an urgent need for air defense to protect civilians in Ukraine.”
Tetyana Storozhenko’s family barely survived a Russian ballistic-missile strike on July 2 that killed a family of five next door and blew a gaping hole in her home on Kyiv’s eastern edge.
She said on Thursday that she was grateful to be alive, even as her family struggled with the psychological toll.
“No one is safe from this,” she said, adding that however long it took, producing Patriot systems would be a positive.
“Right now, we have nothing to shoot down all these missiles, we have nothing to defend ourselves with,” she said. “They have been dragging their feet with aid for so many years. If we produce our own air defense, like we are producing drones, that will be very good.”
“We need to defend ourselves,” she added.
Andrew E. Kramer and Nataliia Novosolova contributed reporting.
