Oct 30 (Reuters) – The US State Department said on Friday it had approved the sale of 500 Patriot PAC-3 missiles to Ukraine for an estimated $2.1 billion.
Ukraine will pay for the missiles with contributions from Canada, Germany and Norway routed through the US JUMPSTART program, along with national funds financed by the European Union’s Ukraine Support Loan, the State Department said in a statement.
Lockheed Martin is the principal contractor for the sale.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said earlier this week that Ukraine had been waiting for almost a month for the US to sign off on critical missile supplies, as Russia stepped up attacks on energy and civilian infrastructure.
The Ukrainian leader has repeatedly called on the US, which supplies missiles purchased by NATO allies under a program known as PURL, to speed up deliveries ahead of winter.
(Reporting by Ryan Patrick Jones and Christian Martinez, editing by Michelle Nichols)
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