In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Denys Sienik, the top Ukrainian diplomat in Washington, D.C., sent a frantic message to U.S. lawmakers: Ukraine was suddenly facing restrictions on its military-grade Starlink terminals, and he didn’t know why. The change, Sienik warned, would give Russia an upper hand in the war and make it tougher for Kyiv to intercept strikes against Ukrainian civilians.
By the time Washington’s morning rush hour was under way, other Ukrainian officials were already suspecting the worst: that President Trump had ordered Elon Musk , who owns the company that operates Starlink, to throttle Ukraine’s access to the satellite systems.
The suspicions, which haven’t been confirmed, underscore the extent to which the U.S.-Ukraine relationship has soured in recent weeks as Trump has sought an end to the war.
In recent days, Trump has offered to buy Moscow’s oil in a lucrative diesel deal , demanded that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky step down and declared an energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine that Moscow almost immediately violated.
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The result: A livid Ukraine, rattled U.S. allies and a widening rift in the Republican Party over Trump’s foreign policy ahead of the midterm elections.
“It’s a major problem, and we will do everything we can to fix this,” said Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R., Pa.). Fitzpatrick, who is facing a tight re-election campaign, said Congress would act if it turned out the U.S. government had imposed speed limits on Ukraine’s military-grade Starlink access.
“If we start going dark on Ukraine there will be consequences, mark my words,” he told The Wall Street Journal.
Asked what consequences he meant, Fitzpatrick said Congress could hold up funding for any federal agencies that are responsible. “Agencies won’t get funding if they’re not doing their jobs,” he said.
SpaceX declined to comment on the incident on Wednesday, but Musk noted in a social-media post that limits on Starlink’s military platform Starshield are set by the Pentagon and “ultimately” Trump himself. He didn’t mention Ukraine. “Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS,” Musk wrote.
The White House declined to answer questions on the Starlink matter. In a statement, the White House said “the President and his team remain committed to continuing to play a constructive role in ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, and he remains optimistic that we’ll ultimately get a peace deal done.”
Ukraine’s difficulty in accessing the satellite terminals followed U.S. warnings that Trump could cut off intelligence support or military sales to Kyiv, top European and Ukrainian officials said. U.S. officials, however, deny the threats were ever made.
Ukrainian officials and European allies are now incensed at Trump, senior European officials said, arguing he is going about peace talks all the wrong way. Ramping up pressure on Russia—not Ukraine—is the only way to end the war, they argue, and Russian President Vladimir Putin will only use any economic lifelines from the U.S. to replenish Moscow’s war chest and prolong the fighting.
Zelensky on Wednesday told British broadcaster Piers Morgan he felt betrayed by Trump’s offer to buy diesel fuel from Putin. “It’s a pity that we are losing a strong partner,” Zelensky said. “We can’t be weak. Otherwise we can’t survive.”
Administration officials say Trump remains committed to ending the war and is the only person who can parley with both Putin and Zelensky to forge a viable peace deal.
They said Trump was working first to de-escalate the fighting between Russia and Ukraine, then bring a new offer to Moscow that would grant it access to economic and political benefits if it adheres to a more lasting ceasefire.
Administration officials also characterized Trump’s offer to buy Russia’s diesel fuel as a way to both lower U.S. gas prices and dangle an economic incentive in front of Putin to bring him back to the negotiating table. They noted that Trump remained open to a future economic relationship between the U.S. and Russia once the war is resolved.
Some Republican lawmakers have cheered on Trump’s deal with Russia as a reprieve for American consumers squeezed by high energy prices, while others have rebuked it as a misguided freebie for a Russian leader wholly uninterested in peace.
In addition to Fitzpatrick, other Republicans speaking out against the deal include steadfast Trump allies facing midterm election battles, including Republican Senate candidates Ashley Hinson in Iowa and Mike Rogers in Michigan.
Regular critics of the president’s policies who are retiring from Congress, such as Sen. Thom Tillis (R., N.C.) and Rep. Don Bacon (R., Neb.), also have spoken out against the diesel deal.
Officials say the latest tension between Trump and Zelensky started with a meeting in New York.
Zelensky flew to the U.S. in mid-September for a United Nations summit confident that a lot of things were going his way. Ukraine had blunted Russian advances on the battlefield and Zelensky had several positive meetings with Trump under his belt, including a chummy North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in July .
But at the meeting, Trump pressed Zelensky on why Ukraine was striking Russian oil refineries , people familiar with the matter said. Striking such infrastructure is a crucial part of Ukraine’s strategy to hit Moscow where it hurts most—its bank accounts—in an effort to rob it of revenue for the war effort.
Energy analysts widely agree that rising energy prices, especially the cost of diesel fuel, are primarily the result of the conflict in Iran. Ukraine’s successful drone campaign against Russia, however, has taken between 40% and 50% of the country’s refining network offline, according to analysts.
Since Trump’s discussion with Zelensky, the U.S. has asked Ukraine a half dozen times to halt the strikes, said people familiar with the discussions. Ukrainian officials said they would agree to any energy truce with Russia, but Russia refused—so they didn’t pull back.
Over the course of the next month, Trump increasingly soured on Zelensky as Ukrainian strikes continued. The president grew annoyed that Ukraine was using U.S. resources to target Russia’s energy exports in a way that he thought could hurt American consumers, the people said.
In early October, senior Ukrainian and European officials flew to Miami to meet with two top Trump aides in a bid to revive peace talks. The discussions on Oct. 9, led by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, were aimed at drafting new proposals to end the war that would be acceptable to both Russia and Ukraine.
During that meeting, Kushner and Witkoff said the president was considering the diesel deal with Russia. The Ukrainian and European officials were floored.
In the six-hour meeting, Kushner and Witkoff pushed the Ukrainians and Europeans to come up with a new package of proposals to bring to Russia to try to bring about an end to the war, people familiar with the matter said. That same day, Trump held a 90-minute phone call with Putin, announcing the diesel deal shortly after hanging up.
Several Republican lawmakers called the White House angry after the announcement, lawmakers and U.S. officials said. They said the deal handed Russia a win without any concessions and went against a 2022 law that bars U.S. importing of Russian energy without prior congressional consultation.
On Sunday, Trump declared on social media an energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine he said would be effective immediately. Shortly after his announcement, Russia launched a strike against a power plant in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
When asked about ceasefire violations, Trump said: “They agreed. You know why? Because I said you agreed. That’s why. They agreed because I said they agreed, and that thing has to get settled.”
Write to Robbie Gramer at robbie.gramer@wsj.com , Lindsay Wise at lindsay.wise@wsj.com and Marcus Walker at Marcus.Walker@wsj.com