Zelenskyy says US failed to warn of Russian missile strikes; Rubio cites software issue

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed on Monday that the United States did not provide advance warning of a Russian missile attack on Kyiv's power plants late Sunday evening, raising fresh tensions between Kyiv and Washington. Yuri Ihnat, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian air force, confirmed that Ukraine received no warning before a ballistic missile barrage struck around 11 p.m., though a second wave of strikes at 3 a.m. did trigger a US alert. The incident occurred amid an escalating dispute between Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump, with Ukraine also reporting that it had gone without US warnings for at least three days during the previous week.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio attributed the failure to detect the Sunday strike to a software problem in Ukraine's early warning system. "I know a few nights ago there was a software problem involving their early warning system," Rubio told reporters while visiting Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on October 19. He stated that the United States European Command (EUCOM) was investigating the issue. Rubio denied that the US had paused intelligence sharing with Ukraine, stating: "There's been no pause."

Zelenskyy's public statement highlighted broader grievances with Trump administration policies. He criticized the decision to block supplies of PAC-3 air defence missiles and noted that a recent waiver of sanctions on Russia appeared designed to pressure Kyiv toward capitulation. Trump announced on Friday that he had waived a sweeping sanctions package on Russia, stating the move served US national interests and was intended to facilitate peace negotiations. Trump also wrote on Sunday that Zelenskyy "doesn't care" about ending the war and accused him of prolonging the conflict for financial gain.

For years, the US missile detection system—which uses satellites to identify Russian ballistic missile launches and relay warnings within minutes—has provided Ukraine with crucial advance alerts. However, the circumstances of the Sunday failure remain contested: while Rubio attributed it to a software glitch, Ukrainian officials initially suggested the US had simply withheld the warning. US officials have also cited poor weather over southern Russia as a reason for missed alerts in at least one previous case. On Sunday, Ukraine launched more than 1,000 drones at Russia, setting fire to an oil export terminal and depot in St Petersburg, in one of its largest aerial attacks of the war.