Zelensky Says He Feels Betrayed By the US, Warns Ukraine Is Losing America as Partner

President Volodymyr Zelensky said he feels betrayed by US President Donald Trump and warned that SpaceX’s new Starlink restrictions will cost lives in an interview with Piers Morgan Uncensored, set to air on Wednesday, Oct. 14.

Pressed on whether he felt betrayed, Zelensky conceded: “Really, yes, between us.” He added that the matter was “a little bit more complicated than just my emotions or my feelings,” according to The Telegraph.

“It’s a pity that we are losing a strong partner,” he said in clips shared by Clash Report, adding that Ukraine was losing America, “but not because of us. We can’t be weak.”

Trump ‘not on the right side of history’

According to The Telegraph, Zelensky said Ukraine counts on the US and Trump as strategic partners but disagreed with Washington’s push to halt Kyiv’s strikes on Russian oil refineries.

“They wanted us not to attack. My opinion was, it is not fair,” he said, warning that the US president may have drifted toward Russia.

“If you’re in the middle, you have to stay in the middle, not on the wrong side,” Zelensky said. “I think Trump’s advisers are wrong. I don’t know who is pushing him to the wrong side. This is not the right side of history.”

“We’re not selling our country. Look, guys, it’s not about business for us. It’s our lives. It’s our country, our home, our children,” he added.

Zelensky also said he would not step down under US pressure, after Trump said on Oct. 10 that Ukraine needed “a new president,” The Telegraph reported.

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Ties with Washington quickly turned sour

The interview came amid escalating tensions between Kyiv and the US, following several months of successful cooperation.

For much of the past year, Trump avoided casting Russia as the aggressor and repeatedly pressured Kyiv to make concessions. His tone shifted over the summer, when he praised Zelensky as “courageous” and said he was “holding his own” against Russia, though he stopped short of saying Ukraine was winning.

At a NATO summit in Ankara on July 8, Trump said the US would grant Ukraine the license for domestically producing Patriot air defense systems; the main weapon capable of intercepting Russian ballistic missiles, before later walking the pledge back.

Washington then stepped up its push to end the war.

In early September, US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow before making their first official visit to Kyiv on Sept. 6, where they held talks with Zelensky and European officials, though neither side reported a breakthrough.

On Sept. 22, Zelensky and Trump met on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York. Zelensky later announced that Trump told him he had made a “final decision” to grant Ukraine the licenses to produce Patriots domestically.

Within weeks, the relationship took a sour turn.

On Oct. 9, Trump struck a diesel deal with Putin that eased US sanctions on Russian fuel, which 12 senators from both parties called “a betrayal of Ukraine.”

A day later, Trump criticized Zelensky and said it was “time for Ukraine to get a new president.”

The US President then announced an energy truce on Oct. 11 that neither Kyiv nor Moscow confirmed, insisting the two sides agreed “because I said, ‘You agree.’”

Overnight on Oct. 13-14, Russia launched 39 missiles and 128 drones at Ukraine, leaving at least 600,000 people without power, according to Zelensky’s estimates.

Although Ukraine abided by the abrupt ceasefire announcement, Russia continued striking Ukraine nationwide. On Wednesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Trump’s energy truce was never defined, so Russia cannot be accused of breaking it.

Around the same time, SpaceX imposed unannounced speed limits on Starshield terminals used by Ukraine’s military, disrupting drone missions, presidential adviser Serhii Beskrestnov said.

Ukraine has also received no early warning of incoming ballistic missiles for two nights in a row, following reports that US envoys threatened to cut intelligence sharing over Kyiv’s refinery strikes.

NATO and EU, as well as Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said they had seen no sign that sharing had stopped, although recent reports by other senior Ukrainian authorities appear to suggest otherwise.