Oct 19 (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that decisions taken by the United States on the war in Ukraine, including delays in arms shipments and restrictions on intelligence sharing, were “hard to explain.”
“Because it all comes down to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s refusal to end this war, and to decisions on the American side that are hard to explain between friends,” Zelenskiy said in a meeting with a US congressional delegation.
Zelenskiy said Ukraine had not received full explanations over limitations placed on the use of the Starshield system needed to stage some drone strikes and defend against Russian attacks, particularly by high-speed jet-powered drones.
In remarks posted on a video on Telegram, he said that on three occasions in the past week, Ukraine had not received the advance warning of an attack generally provided by its partners.
“We also know that, unfortunately, the Pentagon is delaying the delivery of missiles that our partner have already paid for through the PURL programme,” he said.
He said that to his knowledge one missile package was waiting for signature by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“All of this suggests that some political decision has been made to slow down support for us,” he said.
Zelenskiy also said that Ukraine was willing to halt strikes on Russian oil refineries, as demanded by US President Donald Trump, for 30 days if Washington supplied Ukraine with interceptors for the Patriot anti-missile system.
He also said that he hoped a Ukrainian delegation would meet in the coming days with US presidential envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Norway.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Yuliia Dysa; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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