“Well, we would buy their drones, and we make drones, we make great drones, but they [Ukraine] have an ability to make a lot of them,” he said.
David Blagden, an associate professor of international security and strategy at the University of Exeter, tells TIME the summit was undoubtedly a “win for the Ukrainian government.”
“Ukraine was suffering from critical shortages of air defenses, so to be able to build some of the best air defenses under license will potentially be a huge advantage in terms of trying to blunt those Russian ballistic missile attacks,” he says.
Although Trump’s relationship with several NATO allies has become fractured, he acknowledged his rapport with Zelensky has strengthened since their contentious Oval Office showdown last year.
“We’ve actually developed a good relationship, it’s hard to believe, right from the Oval Office to now,” Trump mused.