Zelenskyy says if Trump can't stop Putin, help Ukraine do it
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview published Tuesday that if President Trump "cannot rein Putin in," he should provide long-requested interceptor missiles so Ukraine can defend itself, as the war of words between the two leaders continues to escalate.
"If you cannot rein Putin in, then give us interceptor missiles so I can protect our energy infrastructure," Zelenskyy told the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera, referring to Russia's autocratic President Vladimir Putin.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said later Tuesday that Mr. Trump has been "frustrated" by what he described as false accusations that "he is doing things to deliberately harm Ukraine." He insisted that nothing had been "deliberately denied to Ukraine," but added: "It's simply, it's a balance between our obligations to other partners and frankly our own ... requirements for our own facilities as well."
The exchange came as Zelenskyy prepared to meet U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff in Norway on Tuesday, with his fellow envoy, Mr. Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, expected to join remotely.
Zelenskyy has accused the Trump administration this week of delaying shipments of interceptor missiles to Ukraine, as well as constraining Starlink satellite data that is vital to Ukrainian forces' ability to intercept incoming Russian attack drones.
Ukraine has nearly run out of the U.S.-made Patriot air defense interceptors used to take down Russian ballistic missiles, and Zelenskyy has long pleaded for more. This week he said the U.S. was delaying delivery of Patriots already purchased by European nations for Ukraine.
Rubio, on a visit to India, said "every other country in the world" also wanted Patriots.
"I also talked to Saudi Arabia today. They'd like interceptors. Israel would like interceptors. We would like interceptors. Every country in the world would like interceptors," he said. "It's probably the most in-demand product right now in the defense field. So, when a country doesn't get interceptors from the United States, it's not because we're denying."
The meeting comes as daily Russian drone and missile attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities continue claiming civilian lives, and as relations between Kyiv and Washington appear more strained than they have been since Zelenskyy's tumultuous February 2025 meeting in the Oval Office.
The Ukrainian president said Monday that his country had suffered another night of Russian strikes, "and again there was no warning from partners." At least four people were killed in the capital in the latest attacks, Kyiv officials said Tuesday.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said Finnish President Alexander Stubb would also join the talks in Oslo, with "the aim to put diplomatic efforts on a more constructive path," according to a statement from the prime minister's office.
Starshield and Patriots
Mr. Trump on Friday waived some sanctions against Russia, reducing penalties for its energy sales in a bid to ease rising U.S. gas prices caused by the ongoing war with Iran — a policy Zelenskyy says could embolden Moscow to step up its four-and-a-half-year invasion of Ukraine.
Mr. Trump has criticized Zelenskyy for saying he would resume strikes on Russian refineries in retaliation for the latest Russian onslaught.
Zelenskyy said Saturday that Ukraine was still unable to use Starshield — the military-grade version of SpaceX's Starlink satellite network — to intercept Russian drones.
The Trump administration has denied ordering Starshield restrictions. A senior Pentagon official told CBS News Monday that there had been "no change to Department of War policy regarding intelligence sharing or any capabilities we are enabling Europeans to provide to Ukraine."
In recent days, Mr. Trump has intensified his public criticism of Zelenskyy, saying in a Truth Social post that the Ukrainian leader "doesn't want to end this war, and probably never did," and telling reporters, "maybe it's time for Zelenskyy to get somebody else to negotiate."
Mr. Trump has never publicly acknowledged that Russia started the war against its neighbor, which initially began in 2014, and has at times blamed Zelenskyy for the full-scale invasion ordered by Putin on Feb. 24, 2022.
Ahead of his Tuesday meeting with Mr. Trump's envoys, Zelenskyy said he had a "substantive conversation" with Rubio the previous day in which he stressed that Starshield "needs to be restored" and ballistic missile interceptors "are needed to protect lives."
Zelenskyy told a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers via video call on Monday that "the Pentagon is delaying the delivery of missiles" already paid for by European countries. He said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth hadn't signed off on the shipment.
Multiple European countries were waiting for U.S. approval to transfer their own Patriot interceptors, he added, saying he believed "some political decision has been made to slow down ... support for us."
Rubio said Tuesday that it could be accurate that a batch of interceptors purchased for Ukraine had not been delivered, but he told reporters: "I think the important takeaway for you is that there has not been some deliberate political directive to go out and harm Ukraine."
Rubio also said Mr. Trump was "frustrated because, first of all, he doesn't like to be blamed for things that aren't true, including accusations that somehow he had ordered intelligence sharing to be cut off. And that's not true. He's said that repeatedly."
"I think the president, more than anything, is responding to the insinuation that somehow he is doing things to deliberately harm Ukraine — which is not fair and not true," he added.
In his interview with the Italian newspaper, published hours earlier, Zelenskyy said Ukraine had built its relationship with Washington "on honesty, fairness, and, most importantly, transparency."
"When you lie while your people are at war, it is very painful. That is why I have always wanted to hide nothing and never lie to the President of the United States," Zelenskyy told the paper, adding: "We would like to continue having the same open, honest, and pragmatic relations with America that we have today."
"The Russians are striking. America cannot stop them," he said. "Let's believe that America really wants to, but cannot. Then, as a partner, I am willing to meet President Trump halfway: if they strike us and we cannot strike back — that is neither honest nor fair — but if this is what you need, if you cannot rein Putin in, then give us interceptor missiles so I can protect our energy infrastructure."
Trump-Xi-Putin summit on Ukraine?
U.S.-led efforts to end the nearly five-year conflict have stalled in recent months, with Washington more focused on its war with Iran.
Mr. Trump recently said he was ready to meet with Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in China next month for talks that could include discussion of the Ukraine war.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has confirmed that "the topic of such a hypothetical has indeed been mentioned."
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said this week that any such meeting on his country's fate, without Ukraine at the table, would "only encourage Putin to continue this war."
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Trump's Ukraine rebuke after backlash over his Russia moves: "They've given nothing to us"
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