US resumes sharing missile intelligence with Ukraine, says Zelenskiy

The US has resumed sharing intelligence with Kyiv on Russian missile strikes, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday after a meeting with US envoy Steve Witkoff in Norway.

Zelenskiy said Ukraine was again receiving advance warnings of ballistic missile attacks, which were apparently suspended last week by the White House. “Now it works. It’s great,” he said, saying the US move would save lives.

He added: “It’s very important for our people, for children, adults, civilians, because we can hear when ballistic [missiles] is coming. So we are thankful to the American side.”

The talks in Oslo took place amid the worst crisis in US-Ukraine relations since Russian president Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. US president Donald Trump has bitterly accused Zelenskiy of failing to end the war and has said Ukraine needs a new leader.

Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner joined Witkoff and Zelenskiy by video. Norway’s prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, and the Finnish president, Alexander Stubb, also took part, alongside EU and British security officials.

Zelenskiy said he had held a “positive” phone call earlier with the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio. Asked whether Ukraine was now losing the war, after recent hostile US actions, Zelenskiy replied: “Of course we are not losing. But we are losing people because of Russian attacks and time. It’s a pity.”

He said he had raised with Rubio restrictions imposed last week on Starshield, the military-grade version of Elon Musk’s satellite internet service. The slowdown has crippled Ukraine’s ability to launch mid-range drone strikes on Russian battlefield positions.

Zelenskiy said he had offered to stop Ukraine’s long-range attacks on Russian oil refineries – a key Trump demand – if the US provided Kyiv with Patriot missile interceptors. The Pentagon has blocked the delivery of Patriots to Kyiv paid for by other countries, leaving Kyiv more vulnerable than ever to air attacks.

Speaking on Tuesday, Zelenskiy also said he opposed a trilateral summit floated by Putin, which would see the Russian leader, Trump and China’s president, Xi Jinping, meet next month to strike a Ukraine deal. Zelenskiy would be shut out in such a scenario, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“There can be nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,” Zelenskiy said in Oslo. He added: “If it’s about Ukraine and our future, it can only be acceptable when we are at the table of negotiations.”

The Washington-Kyiv crisis began 10 days ago when Trump announced he was lifting US sanctions on Russian diesel, in an attempt to lower fuel prices ahead of the US midterm elections. He then announced an energy ceasefire, which Kyiv implemented for several days but Russia ignored.

Despite this, Trump has bitterly rounded on Zelenskiy. He has effectively positioned the US as Russia’s ally, favouring Moscow over Kyiv, to the dismay of the US’s pro-Ukrainian European and British backers. The US’s peace proposals have largely echoed Russia’s maximalist demands.

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, on Tuesday questioned whether US negotiators had been honest brokers in the peace efforts. Witkoff has held numerous meetings with Putin in Moscow, while so far visiting Kyiv only once.

[ Trump’s pressure campaign on Zelenskiy enters a decisive phaseOpens in new window ]

“Although American negotiators have been trying to push Ukraine into surrender for … one and a half years now,” Ukraine has not surrendered on Putin’s terms “because Europe has been supporting Ukraine”, Kallas said.

Tuesday’s talks came after Zelenskiy told a bipartisan group of US politicians that he believed “some political decision has been made to slow down … support for us”.

US officials have denied, this but have failed to explain convincingly why satellite communication services were curtailed or intelligence sharing temporarily cut off.

Speaking to reporters in India, Rubio insisted nothing had changed. He said Patriot interceptors were in short supply and were needed in other parts of the world, as well as for the US’s own defence. “There has not been some deliberate political directive to go out and harm Ukraine,” he insisted.

At least nine people were killed in Ukraine on Tuesday, including passengers who were travelling on the Kyiv-Odesa highway. A Russian drone struck two vehicles, killing three people and injuring four. One of the victims was the driver of a shuttle bus, which was on its way from the capital to a military cemetery. - Guardian