Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Trump administration sent Kiev a message by temporarily restricting access to Starlink and suspending military intelligence sharing. The Ukrainian leader thanked Washington for restoring both services.
“It was blocked for some period of time. And then it was deblocked by the American side. We are very thankful for this. Now it works,” Zelensky told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday. “Only [the] United States has this unique intelligence to tell our side when Russia uses ballistic missiles. And we didn’t get it during ballistic attacks during three days.”
He continued, “It was a message from [the] American government to limit the speed. And technically, SpaceX did it.”
Zelensky has recently complained that Kiev did not receive advanced notice of recent Russian missile strikes on Ukraine. Additionally, the Ukrainian leader said that Kiev’s access to SpaceX’s Starlink network had been reduced.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has disputed allegations that Washington deliberately restricted Ukraine’s satellite communications.
Zelensky’s remarks come amid growing tensions between Washington and Kiev over Trump’s demands that Ukraine stop attacking Russian energy infrastructure. The President has argued that Ukraine’s attack on Russian infrastructure is the cause of high gas prices in the US.
Over the past week, Trump has announced a diesel deal with Russia, issued a waiver for sanctions Congress recently placed on Russia, and insulted Zelensky several times.
Trump said the sanctions waiver was justified as he was making progress in negotiations to end the war. “My decision on Russia is a very simple one,” he wrote on Sunday. “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. Great progress is being made.”
The President added that a second reason for issuing the sanctions waiver is that Russia is not, for now, providing significant assistance to Iran. “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, and will, unless stupid people get in the way,” he said.
