Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has met with senior US envoys in Norway as he accuses the Pentagon of failing to deliver interceptor missiles to help protect against Russian attacks.
It came as Russia continued its assault on targets inside Ukraine, killing at least seven people across the country.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said talks were being held between Mr Zelenskyy, US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner — the latter taking part remotely — as well as Finnish President Alexander Stubb, on Tuesday local time.
Relations between Kyiv and Washington have soured since US President Donald Trump partially lifted sanctions to strike a diesel-supply deal with Russia's Vladimir Putin and slammed Mr Zelenskyy as a warmonger for Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries.
Mr Zelenskyy has accused the United States of deliberately withholding vital intelligence and delaying military aid, saying on Monday that Ukraine received no early warning of powerful Russian missile strikes that targeted energy facilities in the capital region.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is accusing the US of limiting his country's ability to defend against Russian strikes. (AP: Efrem Lukatsky)
US-led diplomatic efforts to end Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II have stalled in recent months, as Washington has shifted focus towards the war with Iran.
"The aim is to put diplomatic efforts on a more constructive path," he said.
No 'deliberate' withholding of aid, Rubio says
Ahead of the meeting, Mr Zelenskyy on Tuesday said he held "substantive" and "constructive" talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in which he insisted that the US military satellite system Ukraine uses, Starshield, "needs to be restored" and that ballistic missile interceptors "are needed to protect lives".
Mr Zelenskyy told US senators on Monday that "the Pentagon is delaying the delivery of missiles" already paid for by European countries, and that the shipment was waiting for US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth's signature.
He said several European countries were ready to transfer Patriot interceptor missiles from their own stockpiles but were still awaiting US approval.
Russian strikes are continuing to pound Kyiv and other major Ukrainian cities ahead of winter. (Reuters: Oleg Pereverzev)
The United States has denied making any changes to intelligence sharing with Ukraine, and Mr Rubio on Tuesday said Washington was not deliberately withholding supplies.
"There's nothing being deliberately denied to Ukraine," Mr Rubio said while on a trip to India.
"It's simply, it's a balance between our obligations to other partners and frankly our own … requirements for our own facilities as well."
Mr Trump has also denied ordering a reduction in speeds on the US government-owned and -controlled Starshield network after Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX developed it, said the order could only have come from the White House.
Deadly strikes continue
The diplomatic talks came on another bloody day of fighting in Ukraine, with Russian attacks causing power outages in almost half of Ukraine's regions.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that its forces carried out drone strikes on logistics centers, port infrastructure, and three cargo ships in the port of Reni in the Odesa region. It said another bulk carrier was hit at sea on its way to Odesa.
A Russian drone strike near Kyiv killed three people and wounded four others, Ukrainian prosecutors said Tuesday, publishing images showing at least two burned-out cars strewn along a road.
The attack took place in Chabany, a town located next to the M05 highway linking Ukraine's capital to the southern city of Odesa, prosecutors added.
Ukrainian authorities said earlier Tuesday that Russian strikes had killed at least four people around the country.
The Russian defence ministry made no immediate comment on the strikes in its reports on Tuesday.
The attack comes more than four-and-a-half years into the Ukraine war, Europe's deadliest since World War II.
AFP/AP