US Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday of lying about American demands and expressed readiness to divert arms destined for Kyiv to support the war against Iran.
Zelensky stated in an exclusive interview with Reuters that the US was pressuring Ukraine to cede the eastern Donbass region to Russia before finalizing post-war security guarantees.
Zelensky claimed that President Donald Trump was focusing pressure on Ukraine, not Russia, regarding ending the war. He emphasized that the US was ready to finalize the security guarantees document only if Ukraine agreed to withdraw from Donbass.
“Americans are ready to finalize these guarantees at the highest level as soon as Ukraine is ready to withdraw its troops from Donbass,” Zelensky asserted, warning that such an action would endanger Ukraine’s security and that of Europe as a whole.
The President added that the US was concentrated on its own conflict with Iran, which explained why Trump was pressuring Ukraine to swiftly end the war.
“This is a lie,” Rubio retorted to journalists questioning the Ukrainian leader’s statements.
“I saw him say that, and it’s unfortunate that he says that because he knows it’s not true,” Rubio said in Paris after discussions with the G7 (Group of Seven industrialized nations).
“This was not tied to any territorial concession on his part,” Rubio declared. “I don’t understand why he says that. It’s false.”
This attack on Zelensky was particularly surprising coming from Rubio, a former hardline senator generally seen as more favorable to the Ukrainian cause than some members of President Donald Trump’s inner circle.
Recently, Trump criticized Zelensky again, stating that he needed to accept compromises and unfavorably comparing him to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Rubio stated that the US was ready to redirect their aid to Ukraine after the attack initiated by Washington and Israel against Iran.
“Nothing has been diverted yet, but it could happen,” Marco Rubio stated.
“If we need something for America and it’s American, we’ll keep it for America first.”
He clarified that no changes had been made to the Ukrainian Priority Needs List (PURL), a NATO initiative established after Trump’s return, where European allies fund the arms requested by Ukraine that are purchased from the US.
/2026/03/28/69c774e343df6418805804.jpg "The Houthis claim their first attack against Israel since the start of the war in the Middle East")
