Rubio says there was no US pause in intelligence sharing with Ukraine

Ukraine relies on US intel provided through Starshield system to spot fast-moving ballistic missiles that Russia ​fires at its cities.

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio has denied any suspension of intelligence-sharing with Ukraine after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Washington has resumed providing critical ⁠intelligence to help Kyiv defend against Russian missile strikes.

“There has been no pause,” Rubio told reporters while on a visit to Uzbekistan on Monday. “What [Zelenskyy] should be focused on and what we want to be focused on is bringing an end to this war.”

Ukraine has ⁠relied on US intelligence through Starshield, the military-grade version of the Starlink satellite service, to detect the fast-moving ballistic missiles that Russia has fired in waves at its cities.

Asked about a possible ‌meeting between US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to negotiate an end to ⁠the more than four-year Ukraine war, ⁠Rubio said: “There’s been talks of a meeting. I don’t know ⁠whether it’s been finalised, but ⁠the president [Trump] ⁠has been clear. He’d like the war in Ukraine and Russia ‌to end.”

The comments were made after Ukrainian officials said some Russian strikes had occurred without warning. Speaking to the NBC TV network’s Meet the Press programme on Sunday, Zelenskyy said intelligence-sharing had been interrupted but was later “deblocked”.

“We are very thankful for this,” he said. “Now it works.”

Waiving sanctions on Russia

Zelenskyy also said ‌other US actions, such as signing a deal to import Russian diesel and waiving sanctions on Russia that had been slated to take effect this week, will hurt Ukraine.

“If the United States will officially take the side of Russia, of course if these two countries will be together, of course, we will not prevail, and we will not be able to stand,” he said.

Trump on Sunday defended his decision to waive some sanctions on Russia while accusing Zelenskyy of not wanting to end the war.

“My decision on Russia is a very simple one. I am in the process of negotiating Peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine, and don’t want to do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

He claimed that “Zelenskyy doesn’t care” about ending the conflict. “Frankly, with all of the money that Europe is famously giving him … he doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did.”

Trump has temporarily waived sanctions on Russian diesel, allowing large quantities to flow into global markets in a bid to lower fuel prices.

The US president also reiterated his accusation that Ukraine was purposefully targeting Russian refineries to try to hurt Trump’s Republican Party in the November 3 midterm elections.

Polling has suggested Trump’s party is heading for a likely defeat in the elections as many voters are upset by fuel costs, which have soared since the US and Israel launched a war on Iran in late February.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spoke with Meet the Press after it ‌aired Zelenskyy’s interview, saying the Ukrainian president “presents a false binary this morning that Ukraine must ‌win”.

“The war must end, and that will be with some kind of a negotiated settlement,” he said.

Bessent slammed the claim that the US government was behind the slowing of the SpaceX satellite communications. “President Trump and Secretary Rubio have categorically said that no one in the Trump administration did that,” he said. “And I think it is very reckless for President Zelenskyy to make such a charge.”

Meanwhile, in Ukraine, a Russian missile attack ⁠killed ⁠a woman and wounded several people in the capital, Kyiv, overnight, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram on Monday.

The attack also damaged a metro station, a medical facility, an educational institution and a nonresidential building, according to the State Emergency Service.