Oct 18 (Reuters) – The United States has resumed providing Ukraine critical intelligence to help it defend against Russian missile strikes, after a brief pause, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in comments published on Sunday.
Ukraine has relied on US intelligence to spot the fast-moving ballistic missiles that Russia has fired in waves at its cities. U.S. President Donald Trump had said earlier this week that Washington was still sharing intelligence, although Ukrainian officials said some Russian strikes had occurred without warning.
Speaking to NBC’s Meet the Press, Zelenskyy said intelligence-sharing had been interrupted but later “de-blocked.”
“We are very thankful for this,” he said. “Now it works.”
But Zelenskyy said other US actions, such as signing a deal to import Russian diesel and waiving sanctions on Russia that had been slated to take effect this week, will hurt Ukraine.
“If the United States will officially take the side of Russia, of course if these two countries will be together, of course we will not prevail and we will not be able to stand,” he said.
Over the past week, a widening rift between Trump and Zelenskyy has sparked concerns that their tumultuous relationship could lead to even worse outcomes for Kyiv.
Zelenskyy told NBC that he hopes Trump will remain an ally of Ukraine.
“We want to trust him, and I hope that he will change his decisions,” Zelenskyy said. “Because I think that it’s all mistakes and it will not help us. And it will not help United States.”
In a Truth Social post on Sunday afternoon, Trump wrote that his decision-making was aimed at avoiding anything “that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table.”
Ukraine gets US help that Russia does not receive, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told NBC, citing intelligence-sharing and the provision of U.S. munitions to other countries for resale to Ukraine.
But Bessent, speaking with “Meet the Press” after it aired Zelenskyy’s interview, did not directly answer when asked multiple times whether the United States views Ukraine as an ally.
“Zelenskyy presents a false binary this morning that Ukraine must win,” Bessent said. “The war must end, and that will be with some kind of a negotiated settlement.”
(Reporting by Dan Peleschuk and Michael Derby; Editing by Joe Bavier, Sergio Non and Edmund Klamann)
