Zelensky says early warning system resumes following Rubio call

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Kyiv is once again receiving early warnings from its partners following recent Russian missile attacks that occurred without enough notice.

Mr Zelensky said the change happened after talks with his American counterparts, including a phone call with secretary of state Marco Rubio earlier in the day.

“We are thankful that intelligence works now, and I’m speaking about early warning, which is very important for our people, for children, adults, civilians, because we can hear when ballistic is coming,” Mr Zelensky said.

“So we are thankful to American side now that it works.”

In other developments, Russia unleashed another missile and drone blitz of civilian areas in Ukraine, killing at least nine people, officials said on Tuesday.

The attacks came as Mr Zelensky scrambled to ensure more American and European help during a visit to Norway.

Mr Zelensky was joined in Norway by US envoy Steve Witkoff, who has tried without success to steer Russia and Ukraine towards a settlement to end the war.

Jared Kushner, another envoy who is US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, was due to attend a meeting with Mr Zelensky by videoconference.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store and Finnish President Alexander Stubb also met Mr Zelensky in Norway’s capital.

“We are maintaining all contacts that can help bring peace,” Mr Zelensky said in a post on X after he arrived in Oslo.

He said officials gathered in Norway would discuss strengthening Ukraine’s air defences and joint production of weapons.

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Moscow hopes a meeting in Russia between the envoys and Russian President Vladimir Putin can be organised soon, perhaps as early as Wednesday.

“We highly appreciate the mediation efforts of the American negotiators,” Mr Peskov said.

With further US support for Ukraine in doubt as relations between Mr Zelensky and Mr Trump sour again, the Ukrainian leader said he spoke with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is on a trip to Asia.

That conversation came after Mr Zelensky told a bipartisan group of US lawmakers on Monday that he believes “some political decision has been made to slow down … support for us”.

Ukraine has nearly run out of American-made Patriot air defence interceptors that it needs to stop Russia’s ballistic missiles, according to Mr Zelensky, who has pleaded for Washington to send more.

But he said the Pentagon is delaying the delivery of missiles that other countries have purchased for Ukraine.

Mr Zelensky also said he sought Mr Rubio’s help to ensure the US continues to share vital intelligence with Ukraine after Kyiv received no, or late, warnings about Russian missile attacks in recent days.

On top of that, Mr Zelensky said speed restrictions were still in place on Kyiv’s use of the military-grade version of US company SpaceX’s satellite internet service, hampering battlefield operations.

Mr Trump has also waived sanctions on Russia, a move which Mr Zelensky criticised as helping Russian President Vladimir Putin push on with Moscow’s full-scale invasion, which will hit the five-year mark in February.

Mr Zelensky said that he had “a substantive conversation” with Mr Rubio.

“I am grateful for his readiness to help and his clear position,” Mr Zelensky said on social media.

Mr Rubio, who arrived in India on Tuesday on an official trip, denied that the US was withholding assistance from Ukraine.

“Nothing has changed,” he told reporters.

The Patriot ammunition Ukraine needs is in short supply and is also required elsewhere in the world, Mr Rubio said.

“There has not been some deliberate political directive to go out and harm Ukraine,” he said.

With the Russian army held up on the front line, Mr Putin is trying to bomb Ukraine into submission while robbing it of vital US support, Western leaders and analysts say.

European countries, worried by Russia’s plans on the continent, are trying to take up the slack of any fall-off in US supplies, but some key assets are American-made.

European countries and European Union institutions have allocated 237 billion euros (£199 billion) to support Ukraine, compared with 115 billion euros (£97 billion) from the US, according to Germany’s Kiel Institute, which tracks assistance to Kyiv.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas on Tuesday questioned whether US negotiators have been honest brokers in peace efforts. Ukrainian officials say the Trump administration has encouraged Kyiv to surrender land to Russia in return for peace.

“Although American negotiators have been trying to push Ukraine into surrender for… one-and-a-half years now,” Ukraine has not surrendered on Mr Putin’s terms “because Europe has been supporting Ukraine”, Ms Kallas said.

Four people were killed and 27 others wounded, including children, in Russian missile and drone attacks on the Kyiv region over the past day, regional police said.

Three were killed and six were wounded in the Obukhiv district, where warehouses were damaged, police said. In the Bucha district, one woman was killed and 21 people were wounded, eight of them children, while hundreds of buildings were damaged, according to police.

On Tuesday morning, three people were killed and four injured when two vehicles caught fire in a Russian attack on the main Kyiv-Odesa road, Ukraine’s state emergency service said. The dead included the driver of a shuttle bus that was hit. The bus transports people from Kyiv to the National Military Memorial Cemetery.

Two more people were killed in a Russian attack on Tuesday on warehouses on the outskirts of Dnipro in central Ukraine, authorities said.

National grid operator Ukrenergo reported power outages in 12 regions of Ukraine following the Russian attacks.

The Russian defence ministry said in a statement that its forces carried out drone strikes on logistics centres, port infrastructure and three cargo ships in the port of Reni in the Odesa region. It said that another bulk carrier was hit at sea on its way to Odesa.

Meanwhile, air defences intercepted 136 Ukrainian drones over multiple Russian regions overnight, the ministry said.