Rubio outraged by claims Ukrainians are dying due to lack of US intelligence: "This is simply not true"
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio rejected accusations that restrictions on intelligence sharing with Ukraine are causing civilian deaths. He called them false and "scandalous" and said problems with warnings about Russian strikes on October 13 and 18 were "technical in nature".
Sky News reported this, according to Censor.NET.
Rubio’s statement
"I saw someone from the Ukrainian government say that people in Ukraine are dying because the US is refusing to provide them with information. This is scandalous. This is outrageous. This is simply not true. This is not accurate," the secretary of state said.
He explained that he was referring to the Russian attacks on October 13 and 18. According to him, the US is currently examining what went wrong with the warnings.
Rubio’s account of a "technical problem"
"There were problems with identification — perhaps it was an internal problem related to their ability to receive the information provided, organise it and act on it — that is entirely possible. But we are looking into it. As far as we understand, what happened on the 13th and 18th was a technical problem," Rubio said.
According to him, the US continues to provide Ukraine with information about aerial threats "as it always has".
"This was not the result of any US directive to withhold a strike warning. And we are now providing them with the same warnings as we always have," he stressed.
Background
- President Zelenskyy previously said that intelligence from the US had been blocked for a period of time.
- He later said that the US had resumed intelligence sharing after blocking it for "a period of time".
- On October 19, Zelenskyy reported delays in "certain types of vital supplies" at the US Department of War and "political agreements that have not been implemented at the working level".
