US did not warn Ukraine of ballistic missile strike due to "bad weather", Politico reports
Ukraine received no warning from its partners about the ballistic missile strike on the capital on October 12, and the US side attributed this to "bad weather conditions." However, Kyiv finds this explanation unconvincing.
Politico reported this, according to Censor.NET.
The US explanation
Kyiv usually receives missile warnings through the Battlespace Command and Control Center, a system controlled by the US military and NATO members.
However, a source familiar with the situation told Politico that the Americans had told the Ukrainians there was "no warning because of bad weather conditions."
"Kyiv does not consider this an adequate explanation, so a growing number of people are concerned that something else is behind it," the publication writes.
Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat noted that the system had experienced failures before: information sometimes fails to come through, and this was not the first such incident. He said that if technical problems were to blame, specialists would resolve them together with partners.
The situation with US intelligence sharing
- On October 10, US outlet Axios reported that Donald Trump’s representatives, Steven Witkoff and Jared Kushner, may have threatened to stop sharing intelligence over Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries. Witkoff, however, denied reports of such threats.
- On the evening of October 12, Russian forces attacked Kyiv with ballistic missiles. Explosions were heard before the air raid alert was announced. The missiles hit civilian infrastructure.
- On October 13, Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that Ukraine had received no intelligence from its partners about the launches during the previous day’s attack on Kyiv with five ballistic missiles.
- Meanwhile, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha assured that Ukraine continues to receive US intelligence.
