Zelensky asked US for 5% of its Patriot stockpile, Pence says after Kyiv visit

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked the U.S. for about 5 percent of its remaining Patriot inventory in a meeting with Mike Pence, the former vice president said Sunday.

Speaking from Kyiv during an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union,” Pence told host Dana Bash that Ukraine is “winning the war” with Russia, but Zelenskyy has expressed concerns about the upcoming winter season.

“One of the things President Zelenskyy made clear to me,” Pence said, “is that he fully expects that as winter approaches, sooner than later, that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin will start to strike not just children’s schools and hospitals as he did this week, not just a shopping mall taking more than a dozen lives, but that he’ll start to strike that energy infrastructure to try and essentially impose the deep winter cold on the people of Ukraine.”

Pence was in Ukraine for an Independence Day prayer breakfast, which he spoke at , alongside former special envoy Keith Kellogg .

If the U.S. could spare 5 percent of its missile defense system, Pence said Zelenskyy told him, then “he believes that would get them through the winter months.”

But the ongoing war with Iran has depleted the U.S.’s supply, and U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker told Fox Business earlier this month that production would not solve the immediate shortage.

Still, Pence said Sunday the moment could be an “opportunity” for U.S. allies — like South Korea.

The relationship between the U.S. and South Korea has become strained in recent days after President Donald Trump instructed the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” joint military exercises in light of North Korea being “unthreatening and respectful” and his “very good relationship with Kim Jong Un.”

Pence on Sunday seemed to imply South Korea could begin rebuilding a strong relationship with the U.S. if it were to help Ukraine.

“South Korea has interceptors that are very sophisticated, and with some of the back and forth between the president and South Korea this week, this might be an opportunity for President Lee [Jae Myung] to step forward, make those interceptors available to the United States to deploy either in the Middle East or here in Ukraine,” Pence said. North Korea has provided troops to fight alongside Russian troops against Ukraine.

Pence also praised Trump for his actions against Iran and said he believes it will be “essential” that the military remain in the region.

“I think the time is going to come sooner rather than later when the president and our ally Israel are going to have to go in and finish the job,” Pence said.

The former vice president also offered advice for issues closer to home.

Following the collapse of a trade deal with Canada, Pence urged Trump to “drive a hard bargain” but to avoid a trade war.

“The last thing we need right now as our economy is getting back to its feet is a trade war with Canada,” he said. “My hope is, for the sake of American families and for the sake of the American economy, that what we’re looking at here is negotiation and not confrontation in a trade war.”