Ukraine’s partners warned it about three waves of Russian ballistic missile attacks overnight, although no warning arrived before the first wave, Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said on Wednesday, Oct. 14.
Speaking during the national telethon, Ihnat clarified the sequence after earlier military statements and comments by President Volodymyr Zelensky raised questions about missing launch notifications.
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“We gave our first report at around 10:40 p.m. that there had been no warnings from our partners about ballistics,” Ihnat said, according to RBC-Ukraine.
Warnings about the use of ballistic missiles did arrive during the following three waves, he added. Ihnat did not identify which partners provided them or explain why the initial warning was missing.
Zelensky says missiles were detected seconds before impact
The clarification follows two consecutive evenings when Ukraine reported receiving no advance warning before Russian ballistic missile strikes on Kyiv.
Discussing the Monday, Oct. 12 attack in his Tuesday evening address, Zelensky said five missiles had been detected only seconds before impact.
“Normally, we receive advance warning from our partners, which are crucial for our defense,” he said.
After another strike on Tuesday evening, Zelensky again said there had been no advance warning. That attack hit Kyiv’s CHP-4 power plant and a residential building.
Ihnat’s Wednesday account confirms the absence of an initial alert while establishing that warnings were received later in the overnight attack.
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Sybiha cites weapon type, Trump denies intelligence cutoff
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha offered a different explanation for the delayed alert during Monday’s attack, attributing it to the type of weapon Russia used.
Speaking at the Warsaw Security Forum on Tuesday, he confirmed that Ukraine continued receiving US intelligence. He did not disclose whether the scope of that cooperation had changed.
Trump also denied that Washington had stopped sharing intelligence.
“No, we haven’t,” he said when asked on Tuesday, adding: “We are helping them.” Neither statement explained why the missile-launch warnings had been missing.
Refinery dispute fuels questions over US support
Concerns intensified after reports that US envoys threatened to restrict intelligence sharing unless Ukraine stopped attacking Russian oil refineries.
Axios cited a Ukrainian official who said Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner conveyed that warning during talks in Miami. A US official disputed that an explicit threat had been made.
Zelensky subsequently told NPR that Washington had warned about a possible suspension of intelligence cooperation over refinery strikes, according to RBC-Ukraine’s account of the interview. The White House referred NPR to Trump’s remarks that intelligence sharing continued.
Officials have not publicly established a connection between those warnings and the missing missile alerts. Ihnat’s latest statement confirms that partners supplied information during the subsequent waves, but leaves the failure before the first strike unexplained.
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