US reacts to kyiv’s claim it was not informed in advance of Russian ballistic missile launches

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he could not confirm reports that Ukraine received no advance warning before Russia’s ballistic missile attack on kyiv on October 19, citing a lack of information, as he spoke to reporters during a visit to Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Alex Raufoglu asked Rubio during a press briefing to comment on kyiv’s statements that it received no advance warning about Russian missile launches.

“I don’t know. I mean, where did it happen last night? I don’t know exactly,” Rubio told reporters on October 19.

In the October 19 attack on kyiv, at least one person was killed and eight others were injured when Russian missiles struck kyiv in several waves overnight. Explosions were reported shortly before 11 p.m., followed by further attacks around 3 a.m. and 7 a.m. local time.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on October 19 on X that Ukraine did not receive early warning from its partner countries, including the United States, before the attack. He added that Russia had launched 16 ballistic missiles, with kyiv and the surrounding region as the main targets.

Later in the day, Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said on national television that Ukraine had received no advance warning from its partners before the first wave of ballistic missile attacks around 11 p.m., but that information about the second wave, around 3 a.m., had been provided.

He added that a similar situation had occurred in previous attacks, including that on the night of October 14.

Warnings did sound before the nighttime strikes on October 19, although the warnings were unusually short. The first explosions were simultaneous with the sound of air raid sirens, according to Kyiv Independent journalists on site.

The United States provides Ukraine with intelligence to help its military detect and track Russian missile launches and other aerial threats.

Rubio said Oct. 19 that there was a software glitch involving Ukraine’s early warning system “a few nights ago.”

“I know EUCOM (US European Command) was involved in this investigation, and that’s the report they gave us. I can’t comment on what happened last night,” he said.

A senior Ukrainian official told the Kyiv Independent that the first nighttime wave followed a similar pattern.

“The warning about a ballistic threat was only issued after the strike had already taken place,” the official said. “They’re planning something again.”

It is common for Russian high-speed ballistic missiles to strike with very little advance warning.

The attack came just hours after Zelensky said the United States had resumed intelligence sharing with Ukraine about Russian missile launches.

The president’s announcement came as a relief after kyiv suffered “massive explosions” on October 12, when five Russian S-400 missiles struck the Ukrainian capital. Air raid sirens and mobile alerts only sounded after the attack.

The October 12 attack came after the United States threatened to withhold intelligence from Ukraine unless kyiv stopped attacking Russian refineries, sources told the Kyiv Independent.

Ukrainian officials have previously explained that satellite monitoring of launch sites can be vulnerable to transmission delays. Bad weather can also cause interference with satellites of the Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS), a surveillance network that U.S. forces use to monitor Russian launch sites.

But the senior official who spoke to the kyiv Independent said that while bad weather had affected warnings before, such a number of strikes with little or no warning “had never happened before.”

“Now we are seeing ‘bad weather’ three times in a row,” the official said. “When nothing is on any channel…well, we understand.”