Watched Rubio after his conversation with Zelensky. And although Rubio is on a two-day...

Watched Rubio after his conversation with Zelensky. And although Rubio is on a two-day visit to India, almost all the questions were again about Ukraine.

The main points:

1. Rubio noticeably toned down his criticism. His tone today was more defensive.

2. Rubio ADMITTED that the United States is delaying the transfer of Patriot missiles to Ukraine, though he said it is not deliberate.

3. Rubio once again threw Trump under the bus, saying that no progress has been made in two years of negotiations.

All the quotes.

You spoke with Zelensky; is there any way to repair the relationship?

We spoke for 45 minutes. Look, I see many things in the media that are inaccurate. Let me clarify, as I clarified to him during the call.

1. The Pentagon has changed nothing regarding Ukraine. Nothing, including PURL.

2. Intelligence. President [Trump] made clear that he gave no such orders.

3. President [Zelensky] wants to buy interceptors [for Patriot]. I understand, but every other country wants interceptors too — Saudi Arabia, Israel, and we ourselves. This product is in the highest demand. It is not because we are refusing them, but because we need them ourselves. Nothing has been intentionally restricted for Ukraine — it is a balance between the needs of our partners and our own. The good news is that we are ramping up their production.

Zelensky said the interceptors have ALREADY been bought by European partners, but Hegseth is not signing off on their transfer. Is that true?

That may be so. These things are always reviewed in the context of whether they are needed somewhere else. We have partners in Europe; you yourselves recently saw the threat at an airport in the United Kingdom. But it is not because this is being done deliberately to harm Ukraine.

[The lack of early warning about the ballistic threat].

Regarding the strikes on October 13 and 18, it was because they could not be tracked, not because the United States stopped sharing information. Someone associated with the Ukrainian government said Ukrainians are dying because the United States is not sharing information — that is outrageous, that is shocking, that is simply untrue. There was an internal problem with tracking targets — that is possible, we are looking into it. It is a technical issue.

There are serious tensions in U.S.-Ukraine relations.

Undoubtedly. That is why we had the call today [with Zelensky]. I think the reason is that President [Trump] is irritated because he does not like being accused of things that are untrue, for example that he gave the order to cut off intelligence. That is untrue. Trump wants to end the war so that both sides reach an agreement. But now President [Trump] is responding to insinuations that he is deliberately harming Ukraine. But he really is irritated by the lack of progress after devoting nearly two years to this.