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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that President Donald Trump is “frustrated” over allegations of intentionally damaging Ukraine, among them assertions he ordered intelligence sharing stopped.
“The president is frustrated because, first of all, he doesn’t like to be blamed for things that aren’t true, including accusations that somehow he had ordered intelligence sharing to be cut off. And that’s not true; he’s said that repeatedly,” Rubio said while traveling in India.
“I think the president, more than anything, is responding to the insinuation that somehow he is doing things to deliberately harm Ukraine, which is not fair and not true.”
Trump told reporters Monday that he would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss ending the war, even without Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the table.
“Anything I can do to end the war, whether somebody’s there or not,” Trump said before leaving the White House for a campaign rally in Kansas.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Putin proposed a three-way meeting with Xi during an Oct. 9 phone call with Trump, possibly alongside the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen on Nov. 18 and 19.
Zelenskyy has criticized Trump’s decision to waive new sanctions on Russia. The president fired back that the Ukrainian leader “doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
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Starlink and Starshield services have recently degraded, Zelenskyy said, adding that disrupted U.S. intelligence sharing leaves Ukraine without advance warning of Russian strikes.
Trump said he does not know who ordered the Starlink disruption, adding, “But I’d like to find out.” Musk argued last week that Washington bears ultimate responsibility, while Rubio rejected claims that the United States caused it.
Key provisions of a sanctions bill against Russia drew renewed criticism from Zelenskyy after Trump waived them. He showed lawmakers photos of Moscow’s strike in the Kharkiv region that killed six people, including a mother and her 1-year-old child. “This is how Russia responds to the lifting of sanctions and the easing of pressure,” he said.
Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., stated in a joint statement after the call that appeasing Putin “will only prolong this war and bring greater casualties.”
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