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Ukraine and France are negotiating a license for SCALP missiles to be produced in Ukraine, Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov revealed, adding that Kyiv is making progress in the talks.
France’s SCALP cruise missiles are equivalent to the British Storm Shadow, with a range of up to 250 km.
Paris first agreed to transfer them to Ukraine in July 2023, at the NATO summit in Vilnius. Since then, Kyiv has deployed SCALP missiles in strikes against targets in Russia and occupied Crimea.
“There is indeed progress but it is still too early to say, because it is a difficult process regarding intellectual property in general, the opening of production and so on, there is a certain bureaucracy in this regard,” Fedorov said.
He also said the talks were initiated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron earlier in June “and now the conversation continues with both the government and the company in this regard, all the details are being clarified.”
Following a summit in Evian earlier in June, the leaders of the G7 said they discussed the possibility of Ukraine producing Western weapons and were “ready to consider” issuing these licenses.
The statement raised questions about the possibility of Kyiv obtaining a license for anti-ballistic interceptors.
Kyiv seeks a license to produce anti-ballistic interceptors
For months, Zelenskyy has been trying to persuade Washington to grant Ukraine a licence to manufacture US-made Patriot air defence systems.
While Kyiv has not yet received permission, Zelenskyy said on 21 June that US President Donald Trump plans to ask American defence firms to grant such licenses to Ukraine.
The Patriot air defence system remains the only surface-to-air missile system in Ukraine’s arsenal capable of countering Moscow’s ballistic missile threat.
Manufactured in the US by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, Patriots have been widely relied on by US allies — not least in the Gulf as well as by Ukraine.
But the US-Israel war on Iran has depleted almost a third of the stockpiles of Patriot interceptors. According to some estimates, Gulf states have collectively fired more than 1,100 of them in the past few months.
Lockheed Martin produces roughly 600 interceptors per year, and Zelenskyy said in earlier remarks that monthly production reached at most 60-65 missiles.
According to Kyiv, Russia has the capacity to produce twice that amount: about 120 ballistic missiles per month, along with other missile types.