Ukraine's President Sits With NPR, Pope Leo Cancer, Ambassador Guilfoyle Forced Out

October 14, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky told NPR that the White House threatened to cut off intelligence sharing if Ukraine did not stop long-range drone strikes on Russian oil refineries. "Yes, my generals told me that we have such risk," he said. The threat is tied to President Trump's view that Ukraine is responsible for high fuel costs—he has lifted sanctions on Russian diesel—and his demand that Kyiv halt attacks on Russian energy infrastructure. Zelensky said Ukraine has not received intelligence on Russian ballistic missile strikes for the last two nights, calling it a "weak place" for his military because ballistic missiles are extremely difficult for air defense to shoot down without advance warning. He would not say directly whether the U.S. was withholding the data, calling it a sensitive matter, but noted Ukraine has diversified its foreign intelligence sources after the Trump administration paused sharing information earlier in 2025.

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What you'll learn

1 (00:02) **Ukraine Intel Threat & Ballistic Missile Defense**
2 (04:54) **Human Cost of Missile Attacks**
3 (05:02) **The "Energy Truce" Failure**
4 (05:50) **Pope Leo's Lung Cancer Surgery**
5 (07:46) **Pope Leo's Health History & Reaction**
6 (09:26) **Ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle Forced Out**
7 (12:55) **Judge Blocks White House Media Ban**

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Guests on this episode

Volodymyr Zelensky Scott Detrow Kimberly Guilfoyle

Show Notes

In a sit-down interview with NPR, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the U.S. warned it could cut intelligence sharing over Ukraine’s attacks on Russian oil refineries.
Pope Leo XIV is recovering from surgery after the Vatican announced he has lung cancer, as doctors wait for more test results to determine what comes next.
President Trump forced out U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle after a series of misconduct allegations, raising new questions about his political appointees overseas.

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Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Tina Kraja, Miguel Macias, Daniel Burke, Hannah Bloch, Mohamad ElBardicy and Alice Woelfle.

It was produced by Ziad Buchh and Nia Dumas.

Our director is Christopher Thomas.

We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott.

Our technical director is Carleigh Strange.

And our Supervising Producer is Michael Lipkin.

(0:00) Introduction
(01:55) Ukraine's President Sits With NPR
(05:36) Pope Leo Lung Cancer
(09:12) Ambassador Guilfoyle Forced Out

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