Ukrainian leader says Europe-funded interceptors are waiting on Hegseth’s signature while Russian strikes hammer the power grid
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused the United States of deliberately delaying delivery of air-defence interceptor missiles to Ukraine. The charge comes ahead of expected talks on Tuesday with a senior US envoy, at a low point in relations between Kyiv and Washington.
Zelenskyy told US senators on Monday that “the Pentagon is delaying the delivery of missiles” that European countries have already paid for. He said the shipment was waiting for a signature from US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
He added that several European governments were ready to send Patriot interceptors from their own stockpiles but still needed approval from Washington. Patriot missiles are made in the US, so they cannot be passed on to another country without US consent.
“The missiles are ready, and they could already be in Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said. “But unfortunately, there is still no approval.”
The timing matters for Kyiv. Patriot batteries are Ukraine’s main defence against Russian ballistic missiles. Interceptors are scarce and expensive, and Ukraine fires them faster than it can replace them during large Russian attacks.
No early warning
The dispute over the missiles is part of a wider breakdown in trust over military aid and intelligence sharing.
On Monday Zelenskyy said Ukraine had received no advance warning of powerful Russian missile strikes on energy facilities around Kyiv. Ukraine has long relied on Western intelligence to spot incoming attacks and prepare its air defences.
“Once again, there was no early warning from our partners,” Zelenskyy said as he listed the damage, deaths and injuries from the latest attacks.
Washington denies that anything has changed. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, visiting Uzbekistan on Monday, said intelligence sharing with Ukraine had not been withdrawn. He also backed President Donald Trump’s call for Zelenskyy to focus on ending the war.
A second row involves Starshield, the secure satellite network developed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and owned and controlled by the US government. Musk said an order to reduce the network’s speeds could only have come from the White House. Trump has denied giving any such order.
A public feud
Relations between Trump and Zelenskyy broke down publicly after Trump partly lifted sanctions on Russia to strike a diesel-supply deal with President Vladimir Putin. Trump has also called Zelenskyy a warmonger over Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian oil refineries. Kyiv says those attacks are legitimate strikes on the money that pays for Moscow’s war.
Trump attacked his Ukrainian counterpart again on Monday.
“Zelenskyy doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” he said. “To be honest, I think it’s time for somebody else to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine.”
The remark is likely to alarm Kyiv. It suggests Washington may be questioning whether Ukraine’s elected leader should represent the country in any peace settlement.
Fears of being sidelined
Trump said he was ready to meet Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in China next month to discuss denuclearisation, and that the talks could also cover the war in Ukraine. That has added to fears in Kyiv that its future could be decided without it.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that such a three-way meeting was possible. Asked about the report, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “the topic of such a hypothetical has indeed been mentioned.”
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha warned that such a meeting would “only encourage Putin to continue this war.”
US efforts to end Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II have stalled in recent months as Washington has turned its attention to the war with Iran. European officials have warned that if US attention moves away from Ukraine, Moscow will feel free to keep fighting while talks drag on.
Witkoff shuttle diplomacy
Axios reported that White House envoy Steve Witkoff was travelling to Oslo on Tuesday to meet Zelenskyy and European leaders, and would then go to Russia to meet Putin.
The meetings could show whether Washington still wants a deal that Kyiv and its European allies can accept, or whether it is moving toward an agreement made mainly between the US and Russia.
AFP has contacted the White House for comment.
Pope appeals for Oleshky
Zelenskyy also spoke with Pope Leo XIV on Monday, according to the Vatican, a few days after the pope held a similar call with Putin.
The Vatican said the pope urged both sides to let aid reach the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky and to allow civilians to leave. Oleshky is on the left bank of the Dnipro River in the Kherson region and has been cut off by fighting along the front line.
Grid under attack
Russia’s latest strikes again hit energy facilities and infrastructure across Ukraine. More than 500,000 people lost power, and crews are making emergency repairs to a grid that has been hit repeatedly.
Near the northeastern city of Kharkiv, a strike killed six people, three of them children, local authorities said.
Kyiv says attacks like these show why air-defence deliveries cannot wait. Without enough interceptors, Ukraine has to choose which cities, power plants and substations to protect.
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