US 'plays politics' with Patriot missiles Finland has already paid for
Finnish defence minister says Hegseth has sat on delivery approval for a month while Russia masses missile strikes on Kyiv, European money buys American weapons but not the signature that releases them
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Exclusive: US is 'playing politics' with Patriots - Finnish minister
euronews.com
Finnish Defence Minister Antti Häkkänen says Washington is "playing politics" with Patriot interceptor missiles that European allies have already paid for, as Ukraine heads into winter facing massed Russian attacks on its power grid. Speaking to Euronews at the Finnish defence ministry in Helsinki, Häkkänen said the money exists and the only missing ingredient is American political willingness: "We have the funding, now we need the stocks to be delivered to Ukraine."
The mechanics are unusually blunt for an alliance that insists on presenting a united front. European NATO members and Canada buy US weapons for Ukraine through a funding mechanism called the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List, but every transfer requires final sign-off from the US defence secretary. Pete Hegseth has now sat on that signature for roughly a month, by President Zelenskyy's account. In the same period, Russia fired over 100 ballistic missiles at Kyiv and its surroundings in two weeks, and Ukraine briefly lost access to the US-controlled Starlink system that its army depends on.
The delay runs alongside a broader cooling: Trump has rolled back newly agreed Russian sanctions, authorised Russian diesel sales to curb petrol prices at home, and called for Zelenskyy to be replaced. The hold-up leaves the Europeans in a familiar bind — they can pay for the weapons, but the delivery schedule is set in Washington, against Washington's calendar. A NATO source told Euronews that the alliance's military chief is pressing seven Patriot-owning nations to donate from their own stocks, and that those nations refuse to give anything up without guarantees that the US will backfill what they hand over.
Häkkänen declined to say whether Hegseth personally was responsible, and no official explanation for the delay has been given at all. Winter is coming, he said, and Russia is preparing huge attacks on civilian and energy infrastructure. "Now is the most critical time to have all the air defence capabilities for Ukraine."