Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Donald Trump on Tuesday that if the United States president cannot rein Vladimir Putin in, then Ukraine should get the interceptor missiles it needs to protect its energy infrastructure. The remark, made in a published interview, turned a long-running plea for air defense into a direct challenge to Trump.
Zelenskyy’s words landed as Ukraine faces daily Russian drone and missile attacks and as Kyiv says its stocks of U.S.-made Patriot air defense interceptors are running close to empty. He said this week that the United States was delaying delivery of Patriots already purchased by European nations for Ukraine, and he also accused the Trump administration of constraining Starlink satellite data that Ukrainian forces use to help intercept incoming Russian attack drones.
That is why the interview drew attention beyond its sharp wording. Zelenskyy was not making a general complaint about military aid. He was linking the missiles to a specific wartime need: keeping Ukraine’s power grid alive through another winter of strikes. He told Corriere Della Sera, “If you cannot rein Putin in, then give us interceptor missiles so I can protect our energy infrastructure.”
The response from Marco Rubio came later Tuesday and pushed back on the charge that Washington was starving Ukraine of support. Rubio said Donald Trump had been frustrated by what he described as false accusations that he is doing things to deliberately harm Ukraine. He said nothing had been deliberately denied to Ukraine, adding that the issue was a balance between obligations to other partners and their own requirements for their own facilities.
The dispute is sharpened by a series of recent moves and remarks that Kyiv sees as working against it. On Friday, Trump waived some sanctions against Russia, reducing penalties for its energy sales in a move intended to ease rising U.S. gas prices caused by the ongoing war with Iran. Zelenskyy said that could embolden Moscow to step up its four-and-a-half-year invasion of Ukraine. Trump also criticized Zelenskyy after he said he would resume strikes on Russian refineries in retaliation for the latest Russian onslaught.
There is also a practical gap at the center of the argument. Zelenskyy said Saturday that Ukraine was still unable to use Starshield to intercept Russian drones, even as he warned that the country needs more U.S.-made Patriot interceptors to bring down Russian ballistic missiles. Rubio said every other country in the world also wanted Patriots, a line that captures the squeeze on supply even as Kyiv presses its case for faster deliveries.
Zelenskyy was preparing to meet Steve Witkoff in Norway on Tuesday, with Jared Kushner expected to join the talks remotely. The meeting gives Kyiv another chance to press its case while relations between the two capitals remain more strained than they have been since Zelenskyy’s tumultuous February 2025 meeting in the Oval Office. At least four people were killed in Kyiv in the latest attacks, according to Kyiv officials on Tuesday, a reminder that the argument over missiles is being fought against the sound of incoming fire.
The unanswered question now is not whether Zelenskyy wants more help. It is whether the United States will release the interceptor missiles and related air-defense support Ukraine says it needs before the next wave of strikes arrives.
