Ukraine did not receive a warning from the United States about an imminent Russian missile attack on Sunday evening, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, reigniting concerns that Washington was withholding intelligence to force kyiv to capitulate to Moscow.
Yuri Ihnat, a spokesman for Ukraine’s air force, said on television Monday morning that Ukraine had no warning before a barrage of Russian missiles hit kyiv’s power plants around 11 p.m. Earlier, a Ukrainian government official told the Guardian that the United States did not warn the capital of an impending missile strike.
Ukraine did receive a warning before a subsequent strike, at 3 a.m., Ihnat added.
“Once again, Russia launched a ballistic missile attack in several waves throughout the night, and once again our partners received no warning,” Zelenskyy wrote in a social media post Monday morning.
“When the supply of missiles for Ukrainian air defense is blocked and Russia benefits from sanctions relief or delays, this unfortunately constitutes a denial of reality on the part of our partners,” the president added.
Zelensky is grappling with recent U.S. moves in favor of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Donald Trump lifted a sweeping package of sanctions against Russia on Friday, telling Congress that the pause on the legislation, named for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham and passed by both chambers, was in the national interest. Ukraine has also complained about slowing deliveries of PAC-3 air defense missiles from the United States.
The US president wrote on Truth Social on Sunday: “My decision regarding Russia is very simple. I am negotiating peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine and I do not want to do anything that would foolishly remove Russia from the negotiating table.”
“Zelensky doesn’t care, and frankly, with all the money Europe is giving him, he doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never has.”
For years, the United States had warned Ukraine before Russia launched ballistic missiles, giving authorities several minutes to sound the alarm and allow civilians to reach shelters before the strikes hit. However, Ukraine said it was not warned at least three days over the past week before the missile launch, amid a public feud between Zelensky and Trump.
Speaking early Monday during a trip to Samarkand, Uzbekistan, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said: “Whether this happened last night, I don’t know exactly. I know a few nights ago there was a software glitch involving their early warning system.”
U.S. officials have not previously mentioned a software problem in the early warning system. In at least one case, Ukrainian officials were informed that bad weather in southern Russia had clouded preparations for the missile launch. Rubio said European military command was investigating the strikes.
The United States maintained plausible deniability as services and programs provided to support Ukraine suddenly began to fail. The Trump administration has denied limiting services in Ukraine for Starlink, the satellite internet service run by Elon Musk and used on both offensive drones and anti-aircraft weapons by Ukraine.
Ukraine also said U.S. arms deliveries through the PURL program, under which Europe buys U.S. weapons and then delivers them to Ukraine, have been delayed. The Trump administration has reportedly threatened kyiv to slow crucial arms deliveries unless it stops hitting Russian oil refineries.
Ukraine launched more than 1,000 drones into Russia on Sunday in one of its largest aerial attacks of the war, torching an oil export terminal and depot in St. Petersburg.
The Russian blockade hit 28 substations and other critical energy facilities on Sunday evening, depriving more than 500,000 people of electricity, heat and running water, Zelensky said on social media. Russia has sought to disrupt daily life in Ukraine by attacking trains, shopping malls, gas stations and supermarkets, among other things.
Russia fired 16 ballistic missiles at kyiv and the surrounding region, Zelenskyy said, with officials in the capital reporting that a 21-year-old woman was killed.
Subsequent drone strikes on a public park in the northeastern region of Kharkiv killed six people, including young children. Regional governor Oleg Synegubov said on Telegram that three of the dead in the Nova Vodolaha attack were children, including one in a stroller. Seven children were among the 14 injured. Police released photos showing damaged playground equipment.
Synegubov condemned “another terrorist act by the Russian Federation,” saying that “the enemy is striking a recreation park in broad daylight, knowing that there is no military infrastructure there.”
Pope Leo XIV spoke by telephone with Zelenskyy on Monday to discuss the besieged town of Oleshky in Ukraine’s Kherson region, according to a Vatican statement. He told Ukraine’s president that he had asked Putin for a humanitarian ceasefire during a call with the Russian leader on Friday.
Oleshky residents face a worsening humanitarian crisis, with shortages of food and medicine, as they are caught in the crossfire between Russian and Ukrainian troops. The Vatican said Leo expressed deep concern about conditions in the city and requested a ceasefire to allow aid delivery and evacuations.
The call to Zelenskyy came two days after Leo, 71, was released from a Rome hospital where he underwent surgery for lung cancer on Tuesday.
The Kremlin said Friday it had explained to Leo what it called “the responsibility of the kyiv regime for the difficult humanitarian situation.”
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