Military & Defense
Zelensky meets Lockheed Martin in Kyiv: buying Patriot missiles against ballistic threats and servicing F-16s inside Ukraine
Volodymyr Zelensky met a Lockheed Martin delegation in Kyiv to discuss wider deliveries of Patriot interceptors and F-16 maintenance in Ukraine, on a day of heavy pressure on Ukrainian air defence.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met on Monday, October 19 in Kyiv with a delegation of the American company Lockheed Martin, on a day of intense pressure on Ukrainian air defence. As he wrote on X, the company’s Patriot systems and F-16 fighters play an important role in the country’s defence against Russian ballistic missiles and jet-powered Shaheds, “and with both things are not easy right now.”
The meeting discussed how deliveries can be widened and increased. According to Zelensky, the company is currently increasing production of missiles against ballistic threats, and Kyiv expects to be able to buy part of them “to protect more lives.” At the same time the Ukrainian side is trying to ensure that the maintenance and repair of the F-16s is carried out inside Ukraine. “It is important that Lockheed Martin is present in Ukraine,” he noted, adding that Ukraine is doing everything it can to widen cooperation with the company. Ukrainian military officials also took part.
A day of pressure on air defence
The meeting took place hours after Zelensky spoke of delays in “certain types of vital supplies” at the level of the US Department of War, and one day after his Bloomberg interview, in which he said the US delivers about 12 Patriot missiles a month. Lockheed Martin recently unveiled the new PAC-3 Edge interceptor for the Patriot system.
Earlier the same day Zelensky reported a Russian Shahed strike on a park near a café in the Kharkiv region, with six dead, among them two children: a girl just over a year old, killed in her pram, and an 11-year-old girl. The infant’s mother died in hospital. Another 14 people were injured, six of them children. “Life needs protection. Ukraine needs air defence,” the Ukrainian president wrote.
Overnight into Monday Russia had fired 16 ballistic missiles at Kyiv and its region and more than 200 drones at several areas of the country, leaving at least 550,000 households without power. According to Zelensky, 28 substations and other critical energy facilities were hit, while crews work to restore supply. He ordered the defence and foreign ministers to make urgent contacts with partners who can quickly strengthen air defence.