New Delhi, Oct. 31 -- After weeks of tension between US President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Washington on Friday (local time) approved the sale of 500 Patriot PAC-3 missiles to Kyiv, the State Department announced.

According to Reuters, the sale of 500 Patriot missiles has been approved at an estimated cost of $2.1 billion, in what is being considered one of the most significant steps to supply defensive weapons to war-torn Ukraine since the start of the second Trump administration.

The development comes at a time when Ukraine has long said it urgently requires more missile interceptors to defend against increasingly large Russian missile attacks. The Patriot system is Kyiv's most effective defence ...