U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Oct. 20 that some interceptors purchased for Ukraine through NATO’s Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) may not have arrived, as Kyiv has raised concerns about delays under the program.
Rubio denied a deliberate U.S. directive to harm Ukraine. “There’s nothing being deliberately denied to Ukraine,” he told reporters in Mumbai. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the Pentagon delayed missiles under PURL.
Rubio said he spoke with Zelensky for 45 minutes. Zelensky said they discussed ballistic missile interceptors, early warnings of Russian attacks, and Starlink and Starshield satellite services, which he said needed to be restored. The early-warning topic follows an earlier dispute over U.S. intelligence sharing with Ukraine.
Reuters reported that U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had not yet authorized delivery of the latest weapons package purchased by NATO allies under PURL. Reuters separately reported that Washington had threatened to suspend the program to press Kyiv to halt deep strikes on Russian energy infrastructure. The outlet’s reporting did not identify that pressure as the cause of the possible interceptor delay.
