US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Credit: BBC
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied on Monday that there had been any suspension of intelligence sharing with Ukraine and called on President Volodymyr Zelensky to “focus” on ending the war with Russia.
“There has been no pause,” Rubio told reporters when asked about Ukraine’s claims that the United States had briefly halted the sending of intelligence to help counter Russia’s missile attacks.
The Ukrainian leader told US media on Sunday that the move had been “deblocked by the American side” after a three-day suspension.
Rubio, who is in Uzbekistan for talks with Central Asian officials, said that President Donald Trump wanted Zelensky and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to concentrate on ending the Russian invasion, now into its fifth year.
“What he (Zelensky) should be focused on and what we want to be focused on is bringing an end to this war,” Rubio said.
“That’s what we want everybody to be focused on. That’s what we want the Russians to be focused on. That’s what we should be focused on. That’s what the president has made a priority: trying to bring a war and an end to this war,” the top US diplomat said.
Trump, who says he has made a deal with Russia to secure fuel exports in exchange for the easing of sanctions, has made renewed attacks on Zelensky in recent days over the war.
The US leader wrote on his Truth Social platform on Sunday that he was making “great progress” in negotiating peace between Russia and Ukraine, but claimed, “Zelenskyy doesn’t care, and frankly, with all of the money that Europe is famously giving him… he doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did.”
“Zelenskyy is using Diesel Refineries in Russia as a target, knowing that these attacks are seriously hurting the world diesel markets, including those in the United States,” Trump said.
AFP
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