Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a blunt message aimed at Washington on Tuesday: if President Trump cannot get Vladimir Putin to stop the war, Trump should at least get out of the way and let Ukraine's other allies finish the job.

Zelensky's comments, reported by CBS News, came as Kyiv presses for faster delivery of air-defense interceptors ahead of what Ukrainian officials fear will be the war's fourth brutal winter under Russian missile and drone bombardment. Zelensky argued that if the United States will not move quickly enough on its own, it should at minimum allow Ukraine to make full use of interceptor systems European allies have already purchased on Kyiv's behalf.

A Monthslong Fight Over Patriots

The dispute traces back to a NATO summit in Ankara this summer, where Trump promised to issue licenses letting Ukraine manufacture its own Patriot interceptors domestically — a process Ukrainian officials say could still take one to five years to produce meaningful numbers. Zelensky has separately pressed Trump for an emergency delivery of 300 Patriot interceptors before winter sets in, telling Axios that Ukraine needs the missiles to head off a "winter disaster" as Russian strikes on the power grid intensify.

Washington and Kyiv did strike a deal over the summer on monthly interceptor shipments, according to Ukrainian officials cited by Ukrainska Pravda, but the agreed volume falls well short of what Ukraine's air force says it needs to blunt Russia's barrages. Zelensky has put the math in stark terms before: he says even 5% of the current U.S. Patriot interceptor stockpile would be enough to get Ukraine through the winter, and a full 10% would let Ukraine stop virtually all incoming Russian ballistic missiles.

IT'S PUTIN WHO WANTS AN ENDLESS WAR, NOT ME

Zelensky has also pushed back hard on suggestions from the Trump administration that Kyiv bears blame for the war's continuation, insisting it is Putin who is blocking peace while U.S. delivery delays leave Ukrainian troops and civilians exposed. The remarks landed the same week Iran publicly touted what it called its closest-ever ties with Russia, directly contradicting Trump's own claims that Moscow isn't materially helping Tehran.

What's Next

Zelensky has said one concrete outcome of his most recent meeting with Trump is an expected visit to Kyiv by senior envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff in the coming weeks, a trip Ukrainian officials hope will unlock faster movement on air defense. For now, Kyiv is left juggling a patchwork of U.S. licensing promises, European-funded interceptor purchases and its own production timeline — all racing against a Russian bombing campaign that shows no sign of easing as temperatures drop.

Neither the White House nor the Kremlin had issued a formal response to Zelensky's latest comments as of Tuesday.