US President Donald Trump speaks to supporters at the White House in Washington, DC, 4 July 2025. Photo: EPA / BONNIE CASH / POOL

US President Donald Trump had a “good” conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday, acknowledging Kyiv’s ongoing need for Patriot air defence missiles and suggesting that Washington intended to resume its deliveries, Reuters reported on Saturday.

According to a source familiar with the conversation cited by Axios, during the call, which lasted around 40 minutes, Trump said that he wanted to “help with air defence” and that he would check what, “if anything” had been put on hold in terms of US military aid to Ukraine.

Confirming his “very important and useful” discussion with his American counterpart, Zelensky said on Friday that the US and Ukraine had agreed to “work together to strengthen the protection of [Ukraine’s] skies”.

Supplies of Patriot missiles, as well as other air defence munitions critically needed by Ukraine, were reportedly suspended by the White House on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One following the phone call on Friday, Trump also repeated how “unhappy” he had been about his most recent conversation with Vladimir Putin, and expressed his frustration at the Kremlin’s unwillingness to work towards a ceasefire.

“It’s a very tough situation. I told you I was very unhappy with my call with President Putin. He wants to go all the way, just keep killing people, it’s no good,” Trump said.

The Kremlin confirmed that the two leaders had discussed the “Ukrainian issue” in what it described as a “frank, businesslike and concrete” conversation on Thursday, specifying that Putin had told Trump Russia would “not give up its goals” in Ukraine.

Trump’s phone calls with Putin and Zelensky come amid a recent intensification of Russian airstrikes on Ukraine, with Moscow launching some of its largest drone strikes of the entire war to date this week, according to the Ukrainian authorities.

On Saturday, regional governors in Ukraine announced that four civilians had been killed and 37 others had been injured in attacks overnight on Friday in which 322 drones targeted the country.

One day earlier, the Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russian had launched 539 drones and 11 missiles in what Zelensky labelled a “brutal, sleepless night” on Thursday, with Kyiv the main target.