According to sources at several media outlets, American officials have told their Ukrainian counterparts that alerts from the American Starlink communications network failed due to "bad weather."
Ukrainian officials, in turn, said they did not believe the explanation and accused the US of "gaming the system."
Unfair dealing
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy went so far as to call the lack of information about Russian attacks on Tuesday night and morning "completely unfair."
He said the country received no early intelligence when Russia attacked Kyiv and several other cities early Tuesday morning.
“Unfortunately, there was no warning from our partners,” Zelenskyy wrote on X later in the afternoon.
The Ukrainian president further commented on the development during a visit to London:
He said he “counts on” the US partnership despite “certain difficulties.”
No change in guidelines
But US officials insist that their intelligence-sharing guidelines with Ukraine have not changed, an official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, AFP reports that Ukrainian drones have lost some of their combat capability after restrictions were imposed on the country's Starlink communication terminals.
Starlink is owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk. According to Ukrainian defense sources, SpaceX, the space company controlled by Musk, “unilaterally prevented operations at the terminals (within the Starlink system) - without prior warning.”
Neither Musk nor representatives of SpaceX have commented on the information.