On October 20th, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy stated through his social media that he had a conversation with U.S. Secretary of State Rubio.
Zelenskyy said that this was a substantive conversation, focusing on crucial issues. I appreciate his willingness to provide assistance, as well as the clear position he expressed.
He discussed three main issues with the US. First, there is the issue of anti-ballistic missiles used for intercepting ballistic missiles. Second, it relates to early warnings for Russian ballistic missile attacks. Third, there are matters concerning ‘Starlink’ and ‘Starshield’; the Ukrainian side believes that these services need to be restored.
Zelenskyy emphasized that all these issues were discussed within the context of diplomatic efforts aimed at ending this terrible war and stopping the continuous killing of people.
Recently, the Trump administration in the United States has imposed new pressures on Ukraine. Trump demanded that Ukraine cease attacks on Russian energy infrastructure and blamed the high prices of diesel in the United States on these attacks by Ukraine.
In an interview with NBC on Sunday, Zelenskyy discussed the increasingly tense relationship between him and Trump. He stated that the United States had briefly “disrupted” intelligence sharing with the Ukrainian military.
Ukraine relies on intelligence provided by the United States to detect high-speed ballistic missiles fired by Russia towards Ukrainian cities.
When asked about the Ukrainian claim that they did not receive any warnings before recent Russian attacks, Rubio said that there was a “software issue” “on one night a few days ago”, and the US European Command is investigating it.
