Rubio: We continue to provide Ukraine the same warnings as always
Marco Rubio, the US Senator, strongly refuted allegations suggesting that American intelligence failures are leading to Ukrainian casualties. He asserted that the United States has not ceased sharing intelligence with Ukraine and stated, “There have been no deliberate political instructions or decisions aimed at harming Ukraine.”
Addressing recent airstrikes on October 13 and 18, for which Ukraine reportedly did not receive prior warnings, Rubio attributed the oversight to technical difficulties rather than any failure on the US’s part. He remarked, “I saw someone associated with the Ukrainian government say that people in Ukraine are dying because the US is not providing them information. That is scandalous. It is outrageous. It is simply not true, it does not reflect reality.”
He speculated that the challenges in identifying attacks might be due to “some internal issue related to the ability to receive provided information, systematize it, and respond to it.”
Rubio clarified, “To our knowledge, the incidents on the 13th and 18th involved a technical aspect. This was not a result of any directive from the US not to provide advance warnings about strikes. We continue to provide them with the same warnings as always,” he concluded.
Context
- Serhiy Beskrestnov, an advisor to the Ukrainian president on defense technology development, mentioned in a BBC News Ukraine interview on October 20 that Ukrainians are dying due to a lack of warnings about Russian ballistic strikes.
- “It all looks very strange. Sometimes we receive information before an attack, and sometimes we do not receive it at all,” Beskrestnov explained, noting that during a recent attack, a warning was only provided one minute before the strike.
