President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are reportedly negotiating what the Ukrainian president described as a “mega deal” that would give the U.S. access to Kyiv’s battle-tested drones in return for American weapons, the New York Post reported on Thursday.
The deal could help both countries modernize their militaries, with Ukraine offering insights from its three years of drone warfare against Russia, Zelensky told the Post. The development follows Trump’s growing frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin for stalling peace talks to end the war, which has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives since February 2022.
“The people of America need this technology, and you need to have it in your arsenal,” Zelensky told The New York Post about Ukrainian drones. “I think this is really a mega deal, a win-win, as they say.”
The White House did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
“We will be ready to share this experience with America and other European partners,” Zelensky told the New York Post.
Zelensky’s comments about a pending “mega deal” with the U.S. coincide with significant recent policy shifts by the Trump administration towards Ukraine.
Earlier in July, Trump approved shipments of offensive weapons to Ukraine, including Patriot air defense missiles, and issued a warning to Russian President Vladimir Putin, stating that he would impose “severe “ tariffs if a deal is not reached within 50 days. Trump also reportedly told Zelensky to strike deep in Russian territory to “make them [Russians] feel the pain,” the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
“We are very unhappy, I am, with Russia,” Trump told reporters on July 17. “It wasn’t my war, it was Biden’s war. I’m trying to get you out of it. We want to see it end, and I’m disappointed in President Putin because I thought we would have a deal two months ago.”
In June, Ukraine executed a surprise drone attack on an air base deep within Russian territory, covertly transporting trucks loaded with drones over several months. The operation resulted in more than $7 billion in damage, according to Ukrainian officials speaking to the Associated Press.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced last week that the Pentagon would take steps to “unleash” American drone production and their use on the battlefield, rescinding various Biden-era restrictions that hindered their deployment.
“We were brought here to rebuild the military and match capabilities to the threats of today,” Hegseth said in an announcement video, featuring drones produced by an American start-up. “So while our adversaries have produced millions of cheap drones before us, we were mired in bureaucratic red tape, not anymore.”
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