US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy held a telephone conversation on July 4 and discussed the future defence cooperation and halt in delivery of American weapons.

According to Zelenskiy, the two leaders agreed on the need to "strengthen the protection of the sky" and examined options for additional air defence supplies.  

Zelenskiy has repeatedly asked Trump for more Patriot missiles to protect Ukrainian cities from an intensifying barrage of missiles since a devastating missile barrage struck in May.

However, Trump has remained non-committal and his administration announced this week that it was halting all new weapons deliveries for the meantime, including over a 100 Patriot missile ammo held in dumps in Poland. Ukraine is clearly running out of air defence ammo which would leave its skies open to the Russian bombardment.

“Washington will not transfer some of the weapons intended for Kyiv for now due to US national interests,” Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said, citing the need to maintain sufficient domestic reserves.

Trump held a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 3 where he called for an end to hostilities, but made “no progress” and said he was “not happy” about that.

The Ukrainian president, writing on his official Telegram channel, said his discussion with Trump also covered “the situation in Ukraine as part of the special operation” and the possibility of “a future meeting of the delegations of the two countries.”

Since the last round of talks in Istanbul on June 3, the two sides have not met and the ceasefire talks are currently dead in the water.

In his statement, Zelenskiy noted that he and Trump had explored “in detail” the potential for joint production in the defence industry, adding that “Ukraine is ready for direct cooperation on such projects with the United States.” He described this collaboration as “extremely necessary for the security of Ukraine.”

European Commission officials have said the US move underscores the need for the EU to increase its own military support. “It’s a clear message that Europe must step up,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after the halting of US help was announced.