Volodymyr Zelensky rejected U.S. Senator Marco Rubio’s assertion that the war in Ukraine has reached a “dangerous stalemate” and that a diplomatic settlement is unlikely. Speaking to journalists in Pryluky, where a Russian missile struck an apartment block on 6 October and killed 22 people, including five children, the Ukrainian president urged Washington to increase air‑power support.
Zelensky said the country is not in a diplomatic dead‑lock. “We have heard all kinds of things during this war. So many dead ends, tight corners and so on. We back ourselves into a corner — people, leaders, politicians, we do it to ourselves. But even on the first day of the war, we weren’t backed into a corner,” he said. He added that Ukraine cannot negotiate economic projects with Russia while claiming it is at a diplomatic stalemate.
Earlier, Rubio had argued that there was “no prospect of a negotiated settlement” between Kyiv and Moscow, and that escalation was needed to break the deadlock. Zelensky’s remarks highlight the growing frustration among Ukrainian leaders over what they see as insufficient U.S. support for the country’s defence needs, and he called on the United States to provide more air‑defence assets to help Kyiv gain superiority in the skies.
