Rubio denies U.S. is deliberately withholding interceptors or intelligence from Ukraine

EASTORA REPORT | U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that Washington has not deliberately withheld missile interceptors or intelligence from Ukraine, rejecting suggestions that the Trump administration has made a political decision to weaken Kyiv’s defenses.

Speaking to reporters during a visit to India, Rubio said the U.S. Department of War’s support for Ukraine remained unchanged. “Nothing has changed,” he said.

Rubio rejected reports that Washington was deliberately denying Ukraine interceptor missiles, saying supplies had to be balanced against U.S. commitments to other partners and its own military requirements.

He also strongly disputed suggestions that Ukrainians were dying because the U.S. was withholding intelligence. “That’s scandalous. That’s outrageous. That’s simply not true,” Rubio said.

Rubio said President Donald Trump was responding to what he called an unfair insinuation that the administration was deliberately harming Ukraine. His comments followed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s assertion a day earlier that “some political decision” had been made to slow U.S. support.

Rubio said the war needed to end in part because Ukraine’s power grid was being devastated and because, according to his estimate, 20,000 to 25,000 Russian troops were being killed each month while trying to advance in Ukraine.