Zelenskyy says US gave no warning before Russian missile strike on Kyiv power plants

Today’s Focus

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that the United States gave Kyiv no advance warning before Russian ballistic missiles struck power plants in the capital around 11 p.m. Sunday, according to The Guardian.

Yuri Ihnat, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Air Force, confirmed on Ukrainian television Monday morning that no alert came from U.S. partners before the first wave of strikes. Ihnat said a warning did arrive before a second barrage at roughly 3 a.m.

“Once again, Russia launched a ballistic missile attack in multiple waves throughout the night, and once again, there was no warning from our partners,” Zelenskyy wrote in a post on social media quoted by The Guardian.

Zelenskyy linked the intelligence gap to broader shifts in U.S. policy. He said blocked supplies of air-defense interceptors and sanctions relief for Moscow amounted to “a denial of reality on the part of our partners.”

On Friday, President Donald Trump waived a sweeping sanctions package targeting Russia that had passed both chambers of Congress. The legislation was named for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Trump told Congress the pause served the national interest.

Ukrainian officials have also complained that deliveries of PAC-3 Patriot interceptor missiles from the United States have slowed, The Guardian reported.

Trump defended his approach on Truth Social on Sunday, writing that his decision on Russia “is a very simple one” and that he is negotiating peace between Moscow and Kyiv. The White House has not publicly addressed Zelenskyy’s specific claim about the missed warning.

Sunday’s strikes damaged power generation in Kyiv as Ukraine enters the heating season. Russia has repeatedly targeted the country’s electrical grid during past winters, forcing rolling blackouts across civilian areas.

The Debate

Supporters argue

Trump and his allies frame the sanctions pause and the pullback on real-time intelligence sharing as leverage to force both sides to the negotiating table. Trump wrote on Truth Social Sunday that he is “in the process of negotiating peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine” and does not want to undercut those talks.

Supporters of the approach argue that endless escalation has not ended the war and that only concessions from Washington can move Moscow. They point to the Graham sanctions package, which Trump waived Friday, as a bargaining chip that loses value if automatically imposed.

Administration allies also argue that U.S. intelligence sharing is a sovereign choice, not an entitlement, and that Washington gets to set its own terms. White House officials have previously said Patriot interceptor stocks are limited and must be balanced against U.S. commitments in the Pacific and the Middle East.

Trump has said repeatedly that European allies should bear more of the cost of Ukraine’s defense. His supporters contend that pressuring Kyiv to accept a deal, even an unfavorable one, is preferable to an open-ended American commitment.

Critics argue

Zelenskyy and congressional Democrats say the pattern of blocked interceptors, waived sanctions, and withheld warnings suggests Washington is squeezing Kyiv rather than Moscow. Zelenskyy said the combination amounts to “a denial of reality,” according to The Guardian.

Critics inside Congress note that the Graham sanctions bill passed both the House and Senate before Trump paused it. They argue the waiver overrides a bipartisan judgment that Russia needed more economic pressure, not less.

European officials and Ukrainian commanders have warned that gaps in early-warning data cost lives, because seconds determine whether civilians reach shelters and whether air-defense crews can intercept incoming ballistic missiles. Sunday’s strikes hit power infrastructure as winter approaches, raising the humanitarian stakes.

Opponents also argue that rewarding Russia with sanctions relief before any verified concessions sets a precedent. They say it signals to Moscow and other adversaries that military pressure on U.S. partners can produce diplomatic payoffs.

What the experts say

Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, a nonpartisan Washington research group that publishes daily battlefield assessments, have documented a sustained Russian campaign against Ukrainian energy infrastructure during the autumn and winter months of previous years. Their public assessments have described grid attacks as a deliberate effort to degrade civilian morale ahead of cold weather.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies in London has noted in its Military Balance reports that Ukraine’s layered air defense depends heavily on PAC-3 interceptors for ballistic threats, with few substitutes available from European stockpiles.

Historically, U.S. intelligence-sharing with Kyiv has been credited by Ukrainian officials with enabling early strikes on Russian command nodes and defending against missile salvos. Richard Haass, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, has written that intelligence support is often more consequential than weapons deliveries because it multiplies the effectiveness of existing systems.

Economists at the Kyiv School of Economics have estimated that previous Russian strikes on the Ukrainian grid caused billions of dollars in damage and forced emergency imports of electricity from the European Union.

By the Numbers

11 p.m.: approximate time Sunday that Russian ballistic missiles struck Kyiv power plants without a U.S. warning, according to Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Yuri Ihnat.

3 a.m.: time of the second strike wave, which Ihnat said was preceded by a U.S. warning, per The Guardian.

Oct. 17: date Trump waived the Graham sanctions package on Russia, telling Congress the pause was in the national interest, according to The Guardian.

33%: Trump’s approval rating in a new Washington Post-ABC poll cited by The Guardian, a new low for his second term.

66%: share of Americans in the same poll who said Trump is using the presidency for monetary gain, including 34% of Republicans.

1.6 million to 1.1 million: reduction in the number of Gazans receiving UN World Food Programme aid due to funding shortfalls, per BBC, offered as context for broader strains on U.S.-backed humanitarian operations.