Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a Sunday interview with Bloomberg that, in his view, the US has taken steps aimed at pushing Ukraine to capitulate. He stressed that he does not claim this is the goal of its American partners.
The interview was published on Sunday, October 18. As PAP reports, based on Bloomberg, Zelensky pointed to restrictions on the operation of Starlink and delays in deliveries of interceptor missiles for Patriot systems. “I don’t want to think that our American partners believe the war with Russia can be ended faster at Ukraine’s expense. But that is how it looks,” he said.
Patriots: 12 missiles a month
According to Zelensky, the United States is currently supplying Ukraine with only 12 Patriot missiles a month, about a quarter of the number during the Joe Biden administration. Ukraine pays for them under the PURL programme, and some deliveries have already been approved by the American side, while the rest have not. “This is not a technical issue,” the president said.
We covered the previous stage of the dispute in our article on the sense of betrayal after the restriction of Starshield. Zelensky claims that the US administration, rather than the company itself, is behind the Starlink restrictions.
Proposal: refineries for missiles
Zelensky presented Washington with a scenario in which Ukraine stops attacking Russia’s diesel industry, and the US supplies more Patriot missiles to protect Ukrainian facilities. According to him, the American side, however, wants a complete halt to attacks on fuel targets, and after strikes it threatens to cut Ukraine off from “something”. The president did not specify from what.
Trump’s position is known from a Sunday post on Truth Social, published before the interview. In it, he justified suspending sanctions against Russia with peace negotiations. He also accused Zelensky of attacks on Russian refineries hitting the global diesel market, including in the US:
“Zelensky doesn’t care and, frankly, doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did.”
— Donald Trump on Truth Social, October 18 (original)
US elections and Putin
Zelensky linked the tensions to the campaign ahead of the November 3 midterm elections to Congress. In his view, relations are now “in agony”, but after the elections the situation may calm down. He also assessed that Trump maintains good relations with Putin but is currently unable to force him to end the war.
Earlier, we wrote about Zelensky’s conditions for elections in Ukraine, which were a response to Trump’s remarks about a new president.
What it means
For Poland, as a frontline country and a logistics hub for aid, it matters that the shortage of Patriot missiles concerns defence against Russian ballistic missiles striking Ukrainian infrastructure. A possible “refineries for Patriots” compromise could also affect the diesel market. As of publication, we had not seen a separate reaction from the White House to Zelensky’s interview.
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