Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the country had not changed its policy on sharing early warnings of Russian missile attacks with Ukraine and that the Pentagon was not deliberately withholding air defense missiles. "There's nothing being deliberately denied to Ukraine," Rubio said during a visit to India Tuesday, calling reports that the U.S. was not giving Ukraine early warning of Russian ballistic missile attacks "outrageous." "Everything they've been doing with Ukraine remains the same," he said of U.S. Department of Defense policy.
Nothing has changed." Rubio said Ukraine's urgent appeals for more interceptors for Patriot air defense systems had to be balanced against U.S. needs — which are trying to restock thanks to the war against Iran— as well as the demands of other allies. "I know one of the things that President Zelenskyy has been talking about is that he's been trying to buy interceptors. So does every other country in the world," Rubio said.
"I also talked to Saudi Arabia today. They'd like interceptors. Israel would like interceptors.
We would like interceptors. Every country in the world would like interceptors." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday accused the U.S. of holding back on sending air-defense missiles paid for by allies under the NATO-led Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List program. Zelenskyy also said that the U.S. is not always alerting Ukrainian authorities about incoming Russian ballistic missiles; such attacks have become more frequent and are killing people across Ukrainian cities.
"Unfortunately, we did not receive an early warning from our partners about the first wave of the Russian ballistic missile attack last night. And we are still facing speed restrictions on Starlink and Starshield services in various sectors of the front. The U.S. side has not provided Ukraine with any explanations regarding either of these two issues," Zelenskyy said in the Monday call.
U.S. early warning "always worked and then suddenly it malfunctioned. Nobody in Ukraine believes in this,” an official familiar with the matter told POLITICO on condition of anonymity. Ukraine is also complaining that Elon Musk's Starlink has throttled back speeds on its internet connections in Ukraine, making it difficult to intercept Russian drones.
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