Rubio says there was no US pause in intelligence sharing with Ukraine
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio rejected claims that Washington halted the flow of intelligence to Kyiv after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the United States had restarted providing critical data to help defend against Russian missile attacks. “There has been no pause,” Rubio told reporters during 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 depended on U.S. intelligence delivered through Starshield, the military‑grade version of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network, to track the fast‑moving ballistic missiles Russia has launched in waves at its cities.
When asked about speculation that President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping might meet to negotiate an end to the more‑than‑four‑year conflict, Rubio said talks of such a meeting have been mentioned but he does not know whether they are finalised. He added that President Trump has made clear his desire to see the war in Ukraine and Russia end.
Zelenskyy told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that intelligence sharing had been interrupted but was later “deblocked.” He expressed gratitude, saying, “Now it works.” He also warned that recent U.S. actions, including a deal to import Russian diesel and the pending waiver of sanctions, could harm Ukraine. “If the United States officially takes the side of Russia, we will not prevail and we will not be able to stand,” he said.
President Trump defended the temporary waiver of sanctions on Russian diesel, arguing it was meant to keep Russia at the negotiating table and lower global fuel prices. On his Truth Social platform he wrote, “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.” He also accused Zelenskyy of not caring about ending the war, claiming the Ukrainian leader “doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did.”
The diesel waiver allows large volumes of Russian fuel to enter world markets in an effort to curb rising prices, a move that has drawn criticism from some U.S. officials. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appeared on Meet the Press after Zelenskyy’s interview and said the Ukrainian president “presents a false binary that Ukraine must win.” He stressed that the conflict must end through a negotiated settlement and rejected the notion that the Trump administration had slowed SpaceX satellite communications. “President Trump and Secretary Rubio have categorically said that no one in the Trump administration did that,” Bessent said, adding that it was reckless for Zelenskyy to make such a charge.
In Kyiv, a Russian missile strike overnight killed a woman and injured several others, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko’s Telegram post on Monday. The attack also damaged a metro station, a medical facility, an educational institution and a non‑residential building, the State Emergency Service reported.