Rubio Said It Out Loud: Missiles for Ukraine 'May Not Have Been Delivered'

This concerns weapons purchased under the PURL (Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List) program. The mechanism launched by NATO allows member states to finance the purchase of weapons and ammunition from American stocks, which are later to be delivered to Ukraine. This means that other countries, including Poland, paid the Americans for weapons for Kiev.

Rubio, beginning his visit to India, told journalists that the information about the failure to deliver a tranche of missiles may be true.

However, what is important is that there is no deliberate political directive to try to harm Ukraine, said the Secretary of State.

He added that the issue is about the need to balance US obligations towards other partners with Washington's own needs and requirements.

On Monday, The Washington Post reported that the US administration had not approved the transfer of interceptor missiles needed to defend against Russian missile and drone attacks to Ukraine.

According to the daily, Ukraine's allies paid for the weapons, but the transfer requires the consent of US Defense Minister Pete Hegseth. He allegedly did not formally reject the applications, but also did not complete the procedures necessary to approve the transfer of the missiles.

Zelensky: Supplies are much smaller

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky previously told Bloomberg that the US currently supplies Ukraine with about 12 Patriot missile interceptors per month. This is - according to the Ukrainian leader - about a quarter of the number transferred during the Joe Biden administration.

During Trump's presidency, the US has been selling these missiles to Ukraine, while the previous administration provided them as free military aid.

Zelensky said on Telegram on Tuesday that he had a "substantive" telephone conversation with Rubio. One of its topics was the issue of the supply of interceptor missiles.

"Trump is irritated"

The US Secretary of State also referred to allegations that the Donald Trump administration would deliberately limit support for Ukraine, including the exchange of intelligence data.

The president is irritated because, first of all, he doesn't like it when things are falsely attributed to him - especially allegations that he allegedly ordered an end to intelligence sharing, Rubio said.