Rubio Says Delay in Allied-Funded Patriot Missiles for Ukraine Was Not Political

Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged on Tuesday that a shipment of Patriot air defense interceptors bought for Ukraine may have been held up, but denied that the delay reflected any deliberate political decision to hurt Kyiv, as relations between Washington and Kyiv grew more strained than at any point since early 2025.

Speaking to reporters during a visit to India, Rubio said interceptors are among the most sought-after weapons in the world, with Saudi Arabia, Israel and the United States all seeking them, and that Washington has to weigh its obligations to partners against its own needs. He said President Trump was frustrated by accusations that he was deliberately harming Ukraine, CBS News and the Kyiv Independent reported.

The dispute began when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told a bipartisan group of American lawmakers by video on Monday that the Pentagon was delaying missiles European countries had already paid for. He said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had not approved the shipment, and that European governments were waiting for American approval before transferring their own Patriots. A Ukrainian official told the Kyiv Independent that the contracts were sitting on Hegseth’s desk unsigned.

Ukraine relies on the American-made Patriot system to shoot down Russian ballistic missiles and faces a severe shortage of interceptors. They are scarce worldwide because the United States and its allies used up stockpiles during the war with Iran, and Ukraine has received limited quantities through a NATO purchasing initiative and other channels, the Kyiv Independent reported. Rubio spoke with Zelenskyy for about 45 minutes on Tuesday about the strains between the two governments.

The interceptor dispute is one of several. Zelenskyy has accused Washington of limiting Ukraine’s use of Starshield, the military version of SpaceX’s Starlink network, to intercept Russian drones; the administration denies ordering any restriction, and a senior Pentagon official told CBS there had been no change in policy on intelligence sharing. Trump has stepped up his public criticism of Zelenskyy and last week waived some sanctions on Russian energy sales, a move he tied to easing high fuel prices at home.

At the same time, Trump said on Monday that he would be willing to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in China next month, possibly on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen on Nov. 18 and 19. He said such a meeting would focus mainly on nuclear weapons and denuclearization, though he would do whatever he could to end the war, Euronews reported. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the idea had come up but that nothing substantive had been agreed.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, warned that a three-way meeting without Kyiv at the table would encourage Putin to keep fighting. Zelenskyy was due to meet the American envoy Steve Witkoff in Oslo on Tuesday.