The US is delaying the delivery of interceptor missiles for Patriot air defense systems, which Ukraine uses to shoot down Russian ballistic missiles.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said this in an interview with Bloomberg.
“We paid for the weapons [including anti-ballistic missiles under the so-called PURL program],” Zelensky said. He said the US had agreed to some of the supplies, but not the rest.
"And this is not a technical problem," the Ukrainian president added.
The United States is currently supplying Ukraine with only 12 “Patriot” interceptor missiles per month, and itʼs about a quarter of the pace under the Joe Biden administration, Zelensky said. Under Donald Trump, the United States has been selling these missiles to Ukraine, while the Biden administration provided them for free as part of military aid.
Zelensky also believes that the US is trying to push Ukraine into surrender through its actions.
"Iʼm not saying that this is the goal that our partners are striving for. I donʼt want to think that our American partners believe that the war against Russia could be ended faster at the expense of Ukraine. But thatʼs exactly what it looks like," he added.
What preceded
Relations between Ukraine and the United States have soured again after Trump reported on October 9 that he had reached an agreement with Vladimir Putin to supply Russian diesel to the American and global markets. President Volodymyr Zelensky called the agreements “a weak decision by strong partners”.
Earlier, the American president asked Zelensky to stop hitting oil refineries in Russia, because, according to him, this leads to an increase in diesel fuel prices. He also stated that world fuel prices are increasing due to the war between Russia and Ukraine. FT wrote that the US threatened to block arms sales to Ukraine and the exchange of intelligence because of the strikes on Russian refineries.
Last week, Ukraine received no warning about two ballistic missile attacks: on October 12, when Russia attacked six Ukrainian energy facilities in one day, and on October 14, when the Russians struck all three thermal power plants in Kyiv.
According to media reports, the situation repeated for the third time on October 18, when Russia struck Kyiv with ballistic missiles.
Donald Trump himself denied that the US had stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine. On October 18, Volodymyr Zelensky reported that the US had resumed sharing intelligence with Ukraine.
In addition, on October 17, Trump suspended the “hell of sanctions against Russia” law. The law gave the right to impose tariffs on countries that buy Russian energy. Trump explained his decision by saying that he did not want to do anything that could push Russia away from negotiations to end the war.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine, please follow us on X.