United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III said that negotiations on providing Ukraine with additional Patriot systems continue, however, only an integrated air and missile defense system could change the situation.

"In terms of Patriots and what we will be able to do for orders left to be seen. But I can tell you that we continue to work on this in a very earnest manner. All of the countries that have Patriots certainly value that capability, but I think going forward we'll be able to hopefully work with a number of countries to put together additional patriot capability," he said at a press conference following the 21st meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group on Friday.

According to the Pentagon chief, in the last several days he has been talking "one on one" with some of his European counterparts, discussing this issue and other issues. He emphasized that the United States will continue to work on the air defense issue.

"I would point out that it's not just Patriot that they need. They need other types of systems and interceptors as well. I would caution us all in terms of making Patriot the silver bullet. I would say that it's going to be an integrated air and missile defense, as we said so many times before, that really turns the time," Austin said.

He also noted that there are other capabilities that Ukraine needs and the U.S. pushed really hard to get them.

"And we maybe will be able to get to the Ukrainians a bit faster, but this work continues on," the Pentagon chief said