Nothing in politics happens in a vacuum. Volodymyr Zelensky is learning that lesson in the most-brutal fashion.
Less than a month ago, Donald Trump was boasting of his "very strong" relationship with the Ukrainian president before the world at the U.N.
Yet, since Zelensky criticized the White House's diesel bargain with Vladimir Putin five days ago, Trump has told Ukraine to get a new leader, blamed Kyiv for America's soaring diesel prices and proclaimed that Moscow and Kyiv had agreed to stop striking energy infrastructure, even as Russian missiles battered power stations around the Ukrainian capital and Kharkiv.
Now the discontent appears to have spread from the White House to the American private sector. Ukrainian troops reported early Wednesday sudden restrictions to Starlink; the satellite network operated by Elon Musk's SpaceX has underpinned much of their battlefield communications and drone operations since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The development is both an uncomfortable reminder of how much influence Washington and American companies wield over Ukraine's survival, and another belated birthday present for the Russian president.
Stranger Things Have Happened
Early reports from the Ukrainian front line alleged that Starshield, the military-grade version of Starlink, had suddenly become unreliable aboard fast-moving drones.
Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov, Zelensky's adviser on defense technology, said drones equipped with Starshield terminals were losing connectivity at speeds exceeding 100 mph, disrupting vital combat missions without warning. Four Ukrainian front line sources confirmed the restrictions to Ukrainska Pravda and The Kyiv Independent, while Ukraine's 7th Air Assault Corps reported outages lasting 10 to 20 seconds at speeds as low as 68 to 75 mph. Drone operators were forced to cancel missions, and the military said the situation was particularly acute for high-speed attack drones.
...
SpaceX has not publicly confirmed or explained the sudden change, and there is no evidence to suggest the White House has instructed Musk’s company to restrict Kyiv’s access. But coincidence this is not, according to Beskrestnov.
"It is obvious that this action cannot be a coincidence and is linked to the current political situation," Zelensky’s adviser said in a social media post.
On Saturday, less than 24 hours after the U.S. president trumpeted his diesel deal with Putin, SpaceX CEO Musk said Zelensky had "gone too far" in striking Russian energy infrastructure. Putin’s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who recently held talks in Washington with U.S. officials about potential postwar Russian-American energy projects, celebrated Musk’s chiming in as a "turning point."
Musk himself has never been shy about Ukraine's military dependence on his satellite constellation. In March 2025, he said: "My Starlink system is the backbone of the Ukrainian army. Their entire frontline would collapse if I turned it off." He subsequently promised that Starlink would "never turn off its terminals" over political disagreements and that SpaceX would never use the service "as a bargaining chip."
It remains to be seen whether Musk’s company has in fact betrayed his word, but reduced access to Starlink has already caused havoc for Ukraine’s defenders. Drone operators relying on Starshield face a miserable choice: flying faster means losing connection, and potentially control, of their drones, while slowing down leaves them more vulnerable to Russian air defenses and countermeasures.
A Terrible Two-For
A throttled Starlink connection threatens to undermine Ukraine's offensive capabilities while simultaneously hamstringing the teams tasked with defending civilians against one of Russia's fastest-growing threats.
Beskrestnov said Starlink underpins some of Ukraine's most effective interceptors against Russia's jet-powered drones. These are increasingly prominent in Moscow's aerial bombardments and travel significantly faster than their propeller-driven predecessors.
"Our partners are effectively depriving us of one of the few options for defending the country against jet-powered Shaheds," Zelensky’s adviser warned.
On Sunday, Donald Trump claimed that Moscow and Kyiv had agreed to an immediate truce on attacking each other’s energy infrastructure. "They agreed because I said they agreed," he insisted to reporters on Monday.
Yet Russia’s attacks have continued unabated. Hours before Ukrainian forces began noticing the Starlink slowdown, Putin’s forces launched 39 ballistic missiles and 128 drones overnight into Wednesday, according to Ukraine's air force. Ukrainian defenses were able to intercept 115 of the drones, including 59 jet-powered variants, but only four missiles.
The bombardment damaged equipment at 26 electricity facilities and four oil and gas sites, Zelensky said, leaving at least 600,000 people without power. Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council reported that all three of Kyiv's combined heat-and-power plants had been struck.
Deconstructive Criticism
Zelensky is now scrambling to manage the fallout from his criticism of Trump, which appears to have landed him firmly back in Washington's doghouse.
In response to Trump's suggestion that Ukraine should find a new leader, Zelensky said Sunday he would be willing to hold elections, despite the country's martial law. That is provided Washington could secure a 60-day ceasefire from Russia to allow a credible vote to take place.
Never one to let an opportunity go to waste, Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov dismissed the proposal as a ploy to give Ukraine time to regroup. He declared that the Russian president would order a halt to strikes only on election day itself.
Then, on Wednesday, Zelensky sought to play on Trump’s evident disdain for anyone who questions him by framing Putin's continued bombardment of Ukrainian energy infrastructure as a sign of disrespect.
"The strike was entirely deliberate and demonstrative in its scale—Russia has never before shown such ostentatious disrespect toward the United States," Zelensky wrote on X. "Russia does not consider the American President's statements strong," he added.
Ukrainians will pray the statement doesn’t fall on deaf ears.