Ukrainian negotiators traveled to the US on Friday and Saturday in an effort to urge US President Donald Trump to increase sanction pressure on Russia.
SpaceX has introduced a limit on some Starlink services in Ukraine, stopping the operation of its military-grade version above 100 miles per hour (160 km/h), disrupting combat missions, presidential adviser Serhiy Beskrestnov said on Wednesday.
"Our defense forces did not receive a warning about this limitation, and this led to the disruption of several missions," he wrote on Telegram, adding: "It is clear that this action is not coincidental and is related to the current political situation."
Ukrainian officials fear the move was made at Trump's request
Ukraine’s security services detected disruptions to Starlink terminals across the country overnight on Tuesday night, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to The Jerusalem Post. Ukrainian officials fear the move by the company, owned by Elon Musk, may have been made at the request of US President Donald Trump.
Starlink terminals are one of the key tools enabling Ukrainians to maintain internet access amid Russia’s invasion. The disruptions reportedly interfered with several critical operations.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a social media post that Ukraine had not received an alert about incoming Russian strikes. “This is already the second time this has happened,” Zelensky wrote.
“During the first wave of drone and missile strikes, no warning was received, but an alert was issued during the second wave,” a source familiar with the matter added in a statement to the Post.
Trump himself claimed on Tuesday that the United States had not halted intelligence-sharing cooperation with Ukraine. "We are helping them, and we are sharing intel," Trump told reporters. "We want the war to end, so we're working with them and Russia on getting the war to end."
Zelensky said Russia launched 39 ballistic missiles and more than 120 drones overnight on Tuesday night, targeting energy facilities and critical infrastructure across Ukraine. According to the Ukrainian president, approximately 500,000 people were left without electricity following the attack.
Ukrainian negotiators traveled to the US on Friday and Saturday to urge US President Donald Trump to increase sanctions pressure on Russia.
Zelensky accuses US of inaction as Russian strikes kill over 70 in two days
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused the US of being unwilling to help Ukraine after a Russian bomb attack on Thursday killed at least 35 people in the east, sending the two-day death toll from Russian strikes to over 70.
Hours after the strike on the embattled city of Kramatorsk tore through two buses, Zelensky criticized Washington's effort to pursue economic ties with Russia while also seeking to mediate the more than four-year war.
Speaking to reporters in Pryluky, the Ukrainian leader urged the US to accede to his requests to expand Ukraine's access to the Starlink satellite service to help it target Russian ballistic-missile launchers.
"Open Starlink for Ukraine. You did open it when you were responding to Iran ... I’ve said quite openly — give it to us, help us defend our skies and dominate there. And then Putin will sit down at the negotiating table," he said in an emotional statement.
Ukraine has in recent months aimed to wrest the battlefield initiative from Russia, whose gains have slowed this year, but is still suffering from Moscow's increasingly brutal air war.
"So where's the truth here, where's the honesty? Where's the stalemate? ... That's called unwillingness," he said, referring to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's assertion earlier on Thursday that the war is at a stalemate and that the United States would keep working toward a settlement.
"One cannot, on the one hand, negotiate with the Russians about future economic projects, whilst on the other hand say that we find ourselves in some sort of ... diplomatic stalemate," Zelensky added.