Ukraine Says US Still Shares Intel Despite Missed Missile Alert

Ukraine said it continues to receive western intelligence on Russian attacks even as the latest strike on Kyiv arrived without the usual prior warning from allies.

The capital was hit on Tuesday by “a particularly vile ballistic missile strike” in which five missiles hit civilian infrastructure, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X on Tuesday. “Unfortunately, we received no early warning from our partners about this strike.”

Advance warning of Russian ballistic missile launches is critical for Ukraine because it gives civilians time to reach shelters, Zelenskyy said. He stopped short of explaining why the warning was missed or criticizing Ukraine’s allies.

Ukraine remains critically dependent on intelligence-sharing from Washington as well as for US-made weapon purchases that are financed by other NATO allies. The US temporarily halted intelligence-sharing to Kyiv last year after Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump clashed publicly in the Oval Office over their differing approaches to ending the war.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha‎ sought to dispel worries about Ukraine getting intelligence data from the US as he addressed the Warsaw Security Forum.

“Yes, we continue this cooperation,” Sybiha said on Tuesday. “And also it is true that in yesterday’s night attack the air raid alert was launched with delay, but it is because the special type of weaponry that was used by the Russian side.”

Russia uses a range of missiles against Ukraine, with ballistic weapons among the deadliest because their high speeds and steep trajectories make them particularly difficult to intercept. Even then, air-raid warnings can give civilians several crucial minutes to reach shelter.

The risk of losing intelligence from Western allies about Russian missile launches is compounded by Kyiv’s acute shortage of US-made Patriot interceptors, its only reliable defense against ballistic missiles.

Tensions between Trump and Zelenskyy rose again in recent days after the US president demanded that Ukraine halt attacks on Russian oil refineries while announcing what he described as an energy ceasefire.

Trump also reached a separate agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin to unlock Russian diesel exports, a move that Zelenskyy said would only prolong Russia’s ability to wage its ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

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Ukraine hasn’t struck Russian refineries or other energy facilities for the past two days following Trump’s announcement, even as Russian forces continued attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, Zelenskyy said on X on Tuesday.

The European Union hasn’t received any information from the US on the suspension of intelligence sharing or sales of US-made weapons to Ukraine, EU Commission spokesperson Christian Wigand told reporters in Brussels on Tuesday.

Technical problems and coordination issues with Ukraine’s partners may have caused a delay in sounding an air-raid alert, Ukraine’s Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said on local television on Tuesday.

The exact type of missiles fired by Russia is still being determined and they may have been either S-300/S-400 air-defense missiles used in a ground-attack role or Iskander-M ballistic missiles, Ihnat said.

One shouldn’t draw hasty conclusions from Monday’s delayed air-raid warning, Serhii Beskrestnov, an electronic warfare adviser to Zelenskyy, said in a post on Telegram. This wouldn’t be the first time Ukraine’s partners failed to detect the launch of an S-400 missile, an air defense projectile which Russia also uses for offensive purposes, he said.

“You can call me an optimist, but I don’t believe — I don’t want to believe — that the US will leave us without this information,” Beskrestnov said in another post. “After all, this is about the survival of civilians.”