Rubio calls Kyiv's missile warning claims outrageous, cites glitch

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio sharply rejected claims that the Americans are deliberately failing to warn Ukraine about Russian missile strikes. According to him, the failure of the warnings on October 13 and 18 was technical, not political, Sky News reports.

“I saw someone from the Ukrainian government's circle say that people in Ukraine are dying because the US refuses to provide information. That is outrageous. That is unacceptable. It is simply not true,” Rubio said.

An “internal problem,” not an order

America's top diplomat described the lack of warnings about Russian ballistic missile launches as an “internal problem” rather than a deliberate move by the administration of Donald Trump. Washington is now trying to establish exactly what went wrong.

According to Rubio, the difficulties may have been related to how the transmitted information is received, processed and acted upon. The US gave no order to stop the warnings, and Ukraine is now receiving the same warnings as before.

He also rejected claims that the US is deliberately delaying deliveries of missiles for air defense systems. In his words, many regions of the world are asking for these missiles, they are “perhaps the most sought-after defense product right now,” and nothing is being withheld from Ukraine on purpose: Washington simply has to balance its obligations to other partners with its own requirements.

What Kyiv and the press are saying

On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky discussed with Rubio the operation of Starlink, warnings about ballistic strikes and air defense assistance. Ukrainian troops at the front had earlier reported Starlink outages.

Zelensky complained that the Pentagon is holding up the delivery of missiles already paid for by European allies under the PURL program. As The Washington Post wrote, citing anonymous officials, Washington has blocked the transfer of missiles for Patriot systems. Transfers from allied countries require the approval of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth: formally he has rejected nothing, but he has not completed the steps needed for approval either.

On Sunday, Zelensky said that the US, after a temporary pause, had resumed sharing vital intelligence that Ukraine needs to defend itself against Russian missile strikes.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz