UKRAINE, Oct. 20 — Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the President of Ukraine and Marco Rubio, US secretary of state, discussed cooperation between Kyiv and Washington, including supply of anti-ballistic missiles for Patriot air defense systems, during the phone call amid the dispute between two countries.
Yesterday, Zelenskyy told Bloomberg that the United States supplies Ukraine with only 12 missiles for the Patriot air defense systems per month. This is four times fewer than under former President Joe Biden’s administration.
Zelenskyy also said that they discussed the situation with early warning systems for incoming Russian ballistics, which now rely on US intelligence.
According to Radio Free Europe/Liberty, the United States withheld the intelligence sharing with Ukraine. In the latest Russian attack on Kyiv on Oct. 19, the US hadn’t warned Ukraine about the impending strike on the capital, despite Zelenskyy’s claim that Washington resumed intelligence sharing with Ukraine.
At the same time, Marco Rubio said that he didn’t know that Kyiv hadn’t gotten early warning about the Russian attack. Rubio also added that the problems with the warning was related to an issue with the software in Ukraine’s early warning systems.
Earlier, Zelenskyy said that the US didn’t warn Ukraine about the ballistic attack on Kyiv, while Yurii Ihnat, the spokesperson of the Air Forces of Ukraine, reported that Ukraine hadn’t received warning ahead of the first of four waves of attacks.
Beside the anti-ballistics, Zelenskyy said that he discussed a Starlink and Starshield satellite services. Since Oct. 14, SpaceX or White House has reportedly imposed a 100 miles per hour limit on vehicles using Starlink terminals.
These limitations severely hampered Ukrainian drone operations, including those related to countering Russia’s jet-powered drones using interceptor drones.
The discussions took place against the backdrop of a growing rift between the US and Ukraine, which took a new turn following the US President Donald Trump’s diesel deal with Russia. On Oct. 9, Trump announced that Russia was prepared to release 300,000 tons of diesel immediately to US and global markets. He added that in November Russia could supply 500,000 tons and additional 1 million tons thereafter.
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