WASHINGTON — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday, November 1, that Ukraine would stop hitting Russian oil refineries — a key demand of US President Donald Trump — if Washington provided Kyiv with Patriot interceptor missiles quickly, AFP reported via Arab News. Zelenskyy made the offer in an interview with the US broadcaster Fox News, telling host Trey Yingst that he had held 'different and several' conversations with Trump and his team about the issue.
Source: AFP via Arab News
"We asked that we can't not respond after Russia's attack on our energy, after Russia is killing our people, attacks on our electricity, gas, refineries, on everything," Zelenskyy told Fox News. "We said that if you want us not to attack Russia's refineries, they have not to attack our energy system. Another alternative, give us Patriot missiles, we will find money, not just aid."
The second alternative is time-bound: if Washington provided the missile systems for one month, Kyiv would cease attacks on Russian refineries for the same period, Zelenskyy said, adding that Ukraine would pay for the missiles itself rather than rely only on aid. Patriot systems are among Ukraine's most important weapons for intercepting Russian ballistic missiles and drones, and Ukrainian officials have warned for weeks that their supplies of the interceptors are dwindling.
Source: Sweden Herald
A $2.1 billion sale that may take years to arrive
The offer follows the US State Department's October 30 approval of a sale of 500 PAC-3 Patriot interceptors to Ukraine worth $2.1 billion — yaani 210 crore dollars. Zelenskyy welcomed the deal, writing that '500 PAC-3 interceptors is a substantial number' and could form an effective defence package this winter, but warned that deliveries may begin only in a few years. The purchase is financed by donations from Canada, Germany and Norway as well as the EU's multibillion-euro loan to Ukraine, according to Bloomberg reporting cited by Sweden Herald. 'We are asking our American partners to find a solution for the time when there is a real danger and a real need to use PAC-3 interceptors,' Zelenskyy said.
Trump has demanded that both sides stop attacking each other's energy sites, as he battles inflation at home driven in large part by soaring energy prices fuelled by the Middle East war and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, AFP reported. Kyiv's position is that it cannot leave Russian attacks on its power grid, gas and refineries unanswered — which is why the refinery campaign has continued even as Washington pressed for a pause.
The latest turn in a running bargain
This is a development in a sequence Awaaz Punjab has reported step by step: Ukraine paused its refinery strikes under US pressure in late October, the Patriot sale was approved on October 30, and Ukrainian drones have since struck Russian refining capacity again, including the NORSI refinery at Kstovo in Russia's Nizhny Novgorod region. Sunday's interview is the first time Zelenskyy has publicly attached a simple, timed formula to the bargain — one month of Patriots for one month without refinery strikes — and offered to pay.
There was no immediate public response from the White House or the State Department to the Fox News offer on Sunday. Watch for whether Washington speeds up deliveries from existing stocks — the step Kyiv is actually asking for — rather than relying on the newly approved sale, whose missiles Zelenskyy says could take years to arrive.