WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Marco Rubio has accused Ukraine of attacking ships carrying American-owned energy products in the Black Sea and urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to find a way to end the bloody war.
“We have seen strikes on energy vessels in the Black Sea. And there’s been complaints, a lot, because we have American companies calling us and saying, ‘Hey, that was our oil on that ship that was hit by Ukraine,’” Rubio told Breitbart in an interview released Sunday.
“Now, I don’t believe Ukraine intentionally targeted them, but those ships got hit. And we already have a world that is facing an energy crisis,” he added. “We don’t need any exacerbating situations. And there’s been frustration that despite these asks, that has happened.”
Rubio also insisted Monday that the Trump administration has not paused intelligence-sharing meant to warn Kyiv of impending Russian ballistic missile attacks.
“I don’t know where he’s getting these things from or why he’s saying these things to the press,” Rubio told reporters in Uzbekistan in response to Zelensky’s latest complaint. “There’s been no pause. Zelensky should be focused on bringing an end to this war.”
Tensions between Washington and Kyiv have risen since President Trump’s Oct. 9 announcement that the US would import hundreds of thousands of gallons of diesel fuel in a bid to relieve prices at the pump.
During a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin that same day, the Kremlin tyrant suggested that he, Trump, and Chinese leader Xi Jinping sit down and come up with a way to end the brutal war, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
“I am in the process of negotiating Peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine, and don’t want to do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table,” Trump posted on Truth Social Sunday amid bipartisan criticism of his handling of the war in Ukraine. “Great progress is being made.”
“Perhaps more importantly, Russia is doing very little, if anything, to help the Islamic Republic of Iran, compared to what they could be doing, and I want to keep it that way,” he added. “Zelensky is using Diesel Refineries in Russia as a target, knowing that these attacks are seriously hurting the world diesel markets, including those in the United States.”
On Friday, Trump halted plans to implement sanctions on Moscow under a bipartisan bill named in honor of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
Meanwhile, Ukraine has insisted that its access to a military version of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite system, known as Starshield, was throttled in systems moving faster than 100 miles per hour last week — preventing its air defenses from responding to Russian-launched, Iranian-made Shahed drones.
It remains unclear who ordered the apparent slowdown, with both Musk and the Trump administration denying responsibility.
Zelensky stressed over the weekend that US intelligence about Russian attcks isn’t replaceable.
“We have dozens of countries who help,” he told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” Sunday. “But only [the] United States has this unique intelligence to tell our side when Russia uses ballistic missiles. And we didn’t get it.”
With the Russian invasion of Ukraine set to mark its fifth anniversary in February of next year, Rubio said Monday that “no one’s winning that war.”
“This war is honestly about one part of Ukraine called Donetsk. The Russians occupy all but about 11% of that area in that province, Donetsk, or in that region of Donetsk,” Rubio told Breitbart. “The Ukrainians have a defensive line that they’ve embedded themselves in. They argue, and military strategists say is true, that it is the last defensible line. That if they give that up, there is nothing to defend Kyiv.”
“The Russians have not been able to advance in the battlefield and take that region … The United States remains willing, able, and prepared to play a mediating role if the opportunity presents itself to end this war through a negotiated settlement, which is how we think this war will ultimately end.”
