Ukraine received no early warning from its partners about a Russian ballistic missile strike on Kyiv in which five missiles hit civilian infrastructure, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday. The Ukrainian president described the attack on Monday as “particularly vile”. He emphasised that receiving intelligence from Ukraine’s western allies “helps saves lives, and this is one of the most critical issues”.
He did not apportion blame for the lack of warning, calling it unfortunate. US officials made explicit threats over the weekend to their Ukrainian counterparts that the Trump administration was on the brink of halting intelligence sharing with Kyiv. On Tuesday, however, Trump denied intelligence sharing had stopped.
He told reporters: “We are helping them, and we are sharing intel. We want the war to end, so we’re working with them and Russia on getting the war to end.” Trump has demanded that Ukraine stop attacking Russian oil refineries and has blamed Zelenskyy for the rise in fuel prices in the US. On Friday the US president announced a deal with Vladimir Putin to import diesel from Russia, dropping previous US sanctions.
Asked on Tuesday whether Russia could use proceeds from the sale to purchase more bombs, Trump sidestepped the question. That’s being released into the world. That’s not being released to us,” he said.
Earlier the president claimed Moscow and Kyiv had agreed an “energy ceasefire”, something Zelenskyy described as “news to me”. Ukraine’s leader said his military had not struck Russian oil refineries or energy facilities in the two days following Trump’s Sunday announcement. The Kremlin, however, had ignored the “ceasefire” and continued to bomb Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as before, with multiple attacks, he said.
Ukrainian commanders say American intelligence is not needed to identify targets for deep strikes on Russia, with oil refineries marked on Google Maps. But they say it plays a crucial role in warning of Russian ballistic missile launches, and the takeoff of long-range bomber aircraft. In recent months Russia has dramatically stepped up its bombardment of Ukrainian towns and cities.
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