Is the US Deliberately Slowing Support for Ukraine?

Is the United States deliberately slowing its support for Ukraine? Secretary of State Marco Rubio said no on Tuesday, telling reporters at the start of a trip to India: “That’s scandalous, that’s outrageous, that’s just simply not true.” The same day Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was in Oslo to meet President Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, a day after Trump said Kyiv should “get somebody else to negotiate”.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, asked about the same Trump remark, told journalists that Moscow wants a “legitimate representative of power” across the table. The earlier account of Trump’s remark and the Patriot dispute covers the background.

Zelensky told US lawmakers on Monday that delayed interceptors, restricted satellite service and missing warnings suggest “some political decision” to slow support. Rubio said on Tuesday that “there’s nothing being deliberately denied to Ukraine”. Peskov, answering Trump, named no candidate and set one condition, legitimacy. Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said the Oslo meetings aim to put diplomacy “on a more constructive path”.

On Sunday 18 October, Kyiv said it had received no early warning from the United States before a Russian ballistic missile attack on the capital, the third such case in recent days, NBC News reported.

On Monday 19 October, in a video address to a bipartisan congressional delegation, Zelensky said: “All of this suggests that some political decision has been made to slow down support for us.” He said, according to NBC News, that the United States was delaying ballistic missile interceptors and had restricted Starshield, the military version of SpaceX’s satellite service, without explanation. Elon Musk had said earlier that such limits are decided by the US military and the president, as this earlier piece records.

Trump told reporters: “Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine,” he said. “They haven’t been doing much.” NBC News also reported that on Monday he called for Zelensky to “get somebody else to negotiate”.

Rubio and Zelensky spoke by telephone for 45 minutes, Rubio said. Zelensky described “a substantive conversation” covering missile interceptors, early attack warnings and Starshield restrictions. Rubio told reporters on Tuesday that nothing had changed in US support. “There’s nothing being deliberately denied to Ukraine,” he said. On the claim that the United States had pulled back, he said: “That’s not accurate.”

Asked on Tuesday about Trump’s remark that Zelensky is not the right person to lead the talks, Peskov said: “It is important to us that it be a legitimate representative of power, ready to take responsibility,” The remark was carried by Interfax in Russian, and the translation is Silent Dossier’s. Four days earlier the Kremlin had gone further, with Peskov saying Moscow fully agrees with Trump on Zelensky.

Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store announced the Oslo format. “Ukraine has requested that US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner join the meetings. I am pleased that they are able to participate,” he said, in a statement quoted by AFP. According to AFP, Witkoff attends in person, Kushner remotely, and Finnish President Alexander Stubb takes part. Citing an anonymous US official, Axios reported that Witkoff could then travel to Russia to present ideas to Vladimir Putin. The White House had not confirmed that to AFP.

Zelensky listed three things: delayed interceptors, restricted Starshield service and missing warnings. Rubio’s answer addressed intent. “There’s nothing being deliberately denied to Ukraine,” he told reporters, and he added that nothing had changed in US support.

The dates sit close together. Zelensky made the “political decision” charge on Monday. Trump said that day that Russia “has been fine on Ukraine” and that someone else should negotiate. Rubio’s denial and Peskov’s condition both came on Tuesday.

Joshua VerGow, a former US Navy captain and nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, wrote on 16 October that Ukrainian forces “reportedly were forced to cancel drone missions amid sudden restrictions on Starshield”. He also noted that “the Pentagon contracted with SpaceX to provide Starlink services”. The service Kyiv relies on is therefore a Pentagon contract.

Peskov’s wording lets Moscow back Trump without naming a replacement. Trump’s remark asked for someone else, and Peskov’s reply set the test that person would have to pass: ready, in his words, “to take responsibility”.

Whether Witkoff travels on to Moscow, as Axios reported, and whether the White House confirms it. Whether the Pentagon releases the delayed interceptors, which would test Rubio’s “nothing is being deliberately denied”. Whether Kyiv reports a fourth missile attack without warning. And whether Peskov, or Putin himself, names what a “legitimate representative” must be ready to sign.