US Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied on Monday that the United States had ever paused intelligence sharing with Ukraine, contradicting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy a day after Zelenskiy said the sharing had been briefly interrupted — the sharpest public split yet between Washington and Kyiv over the support Ukraine depends on to warn its cities of Russian ballistic missiles. Speaking to reporters in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Rubio said there had been "no pause," and that both Ukraine and Russia should be focused on ending the war. He also declined to confirm reports of a possible three-way summit between Presidents Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, and warned of a "very real risk" the war could spread into a neighbouring country.
What exactly did Rubio say?
That Zelenskiy's account is wrong, in unusually blunt terms. "I don't know where he's getting these things or why he's saying these things to the press. You should go back and ask him. There's been no pause," Rubio told reporters after touring Registan Square in Samarkand, Reuters reported. "What he should be focused on, and what we want to be focused on, is bringing an end to this war. That's what he should be focused on," he said of Zelenskiy. Reuters described the exchange as the latest twist in several days during which Washington and Kyiv have contradicted each other on more than one occasion and relations between the two countries have deteriorated sharply.
What is Zelenskiy's account?
That the sharing stopped and then resumed. Speaking to NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday, Zelenskiy said intelligence sharing had been interrupted, but later "de-blocked." "We are very thankful for this," he said. "Now it works," Reuters reported. Zelenskiy has also said he believes the US government was behind recent limits on Ukraine's ability to use the Starshield system, designed by SpaceX, which is crucial to defending against Russian drones and missiles; US officials have denied those assertions as well, Reuters reported. Trump had said earlier this week that Washington was still sharing intelligence, although Ukrainian officials said some Russian strikes had occurred without warning, raising questions about whether the intelligence was in fact flowing as normal, Reuters reported. Ukraine relies on US intelligence to spot the fast-moving ballistic missiles Russia has fired in waves at its cities — including the overnight barrage on Kyiv into Monday, in which Ukrainian officials said no advance warning arrived, as reported separately on this site today. Which account of the sharing is accurate has not been independently established; both governments' statements are published here as they made them.
What did Rubio say about a Trump-Putin-Xi summit?
That talks exist but nothing is confirmed. Asked about a possible meeting of Trump, Putin and Xi to negotiate an end to the four-year-old Ukraine conflict, Rubio said: "There's been talks of a meeting. I don't know whether it's been finalized, but the president has been clear. He'd like the war in Ukraine and Russia to end," Reuters reported. The summit proposal — floated by Putin for the sidelines of next month's APEC meeting in Shenzhen, as The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday — would discuss Ukraine's future without Ukraine at the table. Rubio landed in Samarkand on Sunday night to meet officials of the C5+1 grouping of the United States and five Central Asian states, Reuters reported.
Why does the dispute matter?
Because it is now public, repeated, and tied to live operations. The intelligence argument sits alongside Trump's diesel import deal with Russia and his waiver of sanctions on Moscow — moves he said should keep the Kremlin at the negotiating table and which Zelenskiy has criticised, Reuters reported. Rubio framed the wider stakes in Samarkand: "We see nothing good coming from this war," he said. "We see a lot of downside to it, including the very real risk of escalation and spread of this thing... into another country because of a failed sabotage attack, because of drones that are hit with electronic warfare and they wander into a neighbouring country," Reuters reported. His instruction to both capitals was the same: "Ukraine and Russia should be focused on ending the war between them."
This article is drawn from reporting opened and read for this article: Reuters' two October 19, 2026 reports from Samarkand — Rubio's denial that intelligence sharing was paused, with Zelenskiy's Meet the Press account and the Starshield dispute, and his comments on a possible Trump-Putin-Xi meeting, the escalation risk and the C5+1 visit. Statements by Secretary of State Rubio and President Zelenskiy are their own, as reported by Reuters; whether intelligence sharing was in fact interrupted has not been independently established, and neither government's account is presented here as verified.
