Zelenskyy says US intelligence-sharing with Ukraine has resumed

Ukraine is again receiving US intelligence after a brief interruption, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday. He said the lapse had left Kyiv without information about incoming ballistic missiles, making them much harder to defend against. His account was reported by the Dutch news agency ANP and Anadolu Agency. [2] [3]

On 13 October, Zelenskyy said Ukraine had received no advance warning from partners about five Russian ballistic missiles heading for Kyiv, but did not identify which partners he meant. US President Donald Trump said at the time that Washington was still sharing intelligence. An unnamed senior Ukrainian official told the Associated Press that the missed warning had been described as a failure; AP said this suggested a possible cause such as weather rather than a deliberate decision. [4]

The European Commission said on 14 October that it had no indication US intelligence-sharing had stopped. That does not rule out an interruption to particular warnings while other intelligence continued to flow. The timing and extent of the interruption Zelenskyy described remain unclear. [6] [3]

A separate restriction on Ukraine’s use of Starshield, SpaceX’s military satellite service, remained in place, Zelenskyy said. Ukrainian defence technology adviser Serhii Beskrestnov told AP on 16 October that Ukraine was in talks with SpaceX and the Pentagon about a speed cap that cuts a terminal’s connection when it travels faster than 160km/h, affecting drones used to intercept Russian attacks. [3] [5]