Rubio refutes Zelensky’s claims that US cut off intelligence in Ukraine, urges embattled leader to focus on ending war

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Marco Rubio blasted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for suggesting the United States had disrupted critical intelligence warnings about Russian ballistic missile attacks.

“I don’t know where he gets these things from or why he says these things to the press,” Rubio told reporters in Uzbekistan in response to Zelensky’s latest complaint. “There has been no pause. Zelensky should focus on ending this war.”

Zelensky and other senior Ukrainian officials have claimed they did not receive several intelligence warnings about Russian ballistic missile strikes, against which they had limited means to defend due to their shortage of Patriot interceptors.

“We have dozens of countries helping us,” Zelensky told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “But only (the) United States has unique intelligence to inform us when Russia uses ballistic missiles. And we didn’t get it.”

The Ukrainian leader claimed there had been three cases of intelligence warning outages last week and several Ukrainian officials said they also had a similar problem Sunday evening.

U.S. officials insisted to the Post that the United States had not stopped intelligence sharing with Ukraine or interfered with access to Starshield. One source suggested Ukraine was blaming something that might have gone wrong on its side, while another said Zelensky’s heated comments had not been helpful.

In a recent interview with Breitbart, Rubio also accused Ukraine of striking U.S. energy ships in the Black Sea.

“We’ve seen strikes against energy ships in the Black Sea. And there have been a lot of complaints, because American companies are calling us and saying, ‘Hey, it was our oil on that ship that was hit by Ukraine,'” Rubio told Breitbart in an interview published Sunday.

“I don’t believe Ukraine intentionally targeted them, but those ships were hit. And we already have a world facing an energy crisis,” he added. “We don’t need exacerbating situations. And there was frustration because despite these requests, it happened.”

Tensions between Washington and Kyiv have increased since President Trump’s Oct. 9 announcement that the United States would import hundreds of thousands of gallons of diesel fuel in an effort to reduce prices at the pump.

In a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin the same day, the Kremlin bully suggested that he, Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping sit down and find a way to end this brutal war, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

“I’m brokering peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine, and I don’t want to do anything that would stupidly take Russia away from the negotiating table,” Trump said on Truth Social Sunday, amid bipartisan criticism of his handling of the Ukraine war. “Great progress is being made. »

“Perhaps more importantly, Russia is doing very little, if anything, to help the Islamic Republic of Iran, compared to what it could be doing, and I want to keep it that way,” he added. “Zelensky is using diesel refineries in Russia as a target, knowing that these attacks seriously harm global diesel markets, including the United States. »

On Friday, Trump halted his plan to implement sanctions against Moscow under a bipartisan bill named for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).

Meanwhile, Ukraine insisted that its access to a military version of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite system, known as Starshield, was limited last week by systems traveling at more than 100 miles per hour – preventing its air defenses from responding to Iranian-made Shahed drones launched by Russia.

It remains unclear who ordered the apparent slowdown, with Musk and the Trump administration denying responsibility.

With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine set to mark its fifth anniversary in February next year, Rubio said Monday that “no one is going to win this war.”

“This war is honestly about a part of Ukraine called Donetsk. The Russians occupy all but about 11 percent of that area in that province, Donetsk, or that region of Donetsk,” Rubio told Breitbart. “The Ukrainians have a defensive line that they have integrated into. They argue, and military strategists say it’s true, that this is the last defensible line. That if they give it up, there will be nothing left to defend kyiv.”

“The Russians have not been able to advance onto the battlefield and take this region…The United States remains willing, able and ready to play a mediating role if the opportunity arises to end this war through a negotiated settlement, which is how we believe this war will ultimately end.” »