Rubio denies deliberate U.S. withholding of Ukraine support

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied that Washington had deliberately withheld Patriot interceptors or advance warning information from Ukraine, as he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky discussed military support and warning systems on October 20 amid strained relations between their governments. Zelensky said their conversation covered ballistic-missile interceptors, early warning of Russian attacks, and Starlink and Starshield services, which he said needed to be restored. He described the call as substantive and said the two had agreed to speak again. Rubio said he had spoken with Zelensky for about 45 minutes. Rubio told reporters in Mumbai that there had been no political directive to harm Ukraine or deliberately deny it support. He said the United States had not changed its policy on weapons aid or intelligence sharing. He also said any failure in the warning system could have resulted from a technical or information-processing issue, rather than an order not to provide information. The cause has not been independently established in the supplied accounts. The dispute comes as Ukraine seeks more Patriot interceptors to defend against Russian missile...