US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday acknowledged that a batch of interceptors purchased for Ukraine under the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) program may not have been delivered, but said it wasn't due to any political intent.
"I think the important takeaway is that there has not been some deliberate political directive to go out and harm Ukraine," he told journalists as he kicked off his India trip.
"There's nothing being deliberately denied to Ukraine," Rubio said.
Rubio added that he had had a 45-minute conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday. Zelensky said the topics included ballistic missile interceptors, early warning of Russian attacks and the situation with Starlink and Starshield satellite services, which the Ukrainian president said needed to be restored.
The comments come as Reuters earlier reported that US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had yet to authorize delivery of the latest package of US weaponry purchased by NATO allies under PURL.
Zelensky had also said the Pentagon has delayed the delivery of missiles under the program, as relations between Kyiv and Washington have deteriorated this month as US President Donald Trump courted Moscow.
Reuters reported that the US had threatened to stop the PURL mechanism to press Kyiv to halt its deep strikes on Russian energy infrastructure, as Trump announced a Ukraine energy ceasefire with Russia.
Von der Leyen: EU must change Arctic posture as Russia rebuilds military presence
Also on Tuesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the European Union must change its strategic posture in the Arctic as Russia is rebuilding its military footprint there and values that underpinned security in the region can no longer be taken for granted.
"The Arctic is one place where the tectonic plates of geopolitics are colliding. And it is not someone else's frontier. It is part of the European Union," von der Leyen said, presenting a new EU strategy for the Arctic.