War in Ukraine: Zelensky accuses the United States of delaying the delivery of interceptor missiles to Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday accused the United States of deliberately delaying the planned delivery of interceptor missiles to his country, while tensions with Donald Trump are at their highest.

Mr. Zelensky is already accusing Washington of no longer providing Kiev with intelligence to detect approaching Russian missiles before they strike and of limiting the operation of the Starshield system, the military version of SpaceX's Starlink network used by the Ukrainian army for its communications and operations. The United States denies any change in the provision of intelligence to Ukraine.

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“The Pentagon delays the delivery of missiles already paid for”

Speaking before American senators on Monday evening, Volodymyr Zelensky assured that “the Pentagon is delaying the delivery of missiles already paid for” by the Europeans for Ukraine as part of the PURL program. According to him, this lot “is awaiting the signature of (Pete) Hegseth”, the American Minister of Defense. Mr. Zelensky also assured that European countries were ready to deliver Patriot interceptor missiles, the only ones capable of destroying the more sophisticated Russian missiles and which kyiv is sorely lacking, from their own stocks but awaiting “American authorization”.

“The missiles are ready. They could already be in Ukraine. (...) But unfortunately, authorization has still not been given,” declared Mr. Zelensky according to comments broadcast by the Ukrainian presidency. “All this suggests that a political decision was taken to slow down the support provided to us,” he added. Since last week, Ukraine has been questioning the sustainability of American support, crucial in the war against Russia, at a time when Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump are exchanging strong criticism through the media. The American president criticizes Mr. Zelensky in particular for targeting Russian refineries, which he believes is worsening the global fuel shortage and contributing to soaring prices.