Rubio cannot confirm whether Ukraine missed U.S. warning before Kyiv strike

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was unable to confirm whether Ukraine had been alerted about Russia's missile strike on Kyiv prior to the attack, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty correspondent Alex Raufoglu. "I'm not sure exactly what happened last night," Rubio stated, citing a lack of information. He noted that a software issue had affected the early warning system a few days earlier, but emphasized that the United States had not altered its diplomatic presence in Kyiv.

Raufoglu had previously reported that Ukraine's allies had failed to warn it of the ballistic missile attack on Kyiv the previous night. "Once again, there was no advance warning of the ballistic attack on Kyiv that just occurred," the journalist's sources claimed. However, several monitoring channels reported that the United States had warned Ukraine of the attack in time.

Russia launched a major assault on Kyiv using ballistic and cruise missiles and drones late on October 19 and throughout the following morning. A 25-story apartment building in the Solomianskyi district was struck, along with a medical facility and Metro Red Line infrastructure. A 21-year-old woman was killed, and five people were injured.

On October 18, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that the United States had resumed intelligence sharing with Ukraine following a suspension, reportedly related to strikes on Russian oil refineries. Zelenskyy stated that Ukraine had not received intelligence on Russian ballistic missile attacks for three days. He clarified that Ukraine receives intelligence from various countries, but the United States is specifically accountable for providing information on Russian ballistic missile launches. No warnings were issued during the strikes on October 12 and 13, or for part of October 14.