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WASHINGTON — Russian President Vladimir Putin is “giving the middle finger” to President Trump by striking Ukrainian power plants and civilian buildings in apparent violation of a cease-fire, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) told The Post Friday.
“President Trump said that he struck a deal to stop attacks on energy and infrastructure,” said Crenshaw, who visited Kyiv last week as part of a congressional delegation. “And Putin in the last few days is attacking infrastructure. So, in my opinion, President Trump should … absolutely punish him for that.”
The Russian leader is “giving the middle finger to our president,” the congressman and former Navy SEAL added. “In my opinion, the president should not take that … Putin insulted you in the most personal way possible, and you have plenty of leverage to destroy him for it.”
That leverage includes making use of congressionally approved sanctions to strong-arm Moscow back to the negotiating table and help bring to an end the nearly five-year war, as well as granting Kyiv full access to the satellite internet system Starlink and its US military-controlled network, Starshield.
Crenshaw said Ukraine desperately needs satellite connectivity over Russia and Russian-occupied territories to guide drone attacks on the Kremlin’s mobile ballistic missile launchers.
“Ukrainian drones … can hit these targets, but they can’t navigate to them,” he explained. “They’ve hit stuff inside Russia, but it’s difficult. You really need Starlink to navigate to them.”
“Elon Musk just put out a statement, you know, he’s talking about Starshield. … That’s a newer, relatively new thing. It’s, it’s not proliferated. There’s not as many satellites as we need yet,” Crenshaw continued.
“Zelensky’s been very clear he will only … hit ballistic missiles, nothing else, no civilian infrastructure, nothing.”
In a statement on X Friday, the Ukrainian leader said Starlink is only used by his military to intercept Russian drones, “for mid-range strikes against enemy military targets in our temporarily occupied territories,” and for delivering food and supplies to the front.
The Texas Republican stressed that SpaceX could grant Ukraine access to Starlink over Russian land “tomorrow” but the company’s CEO Elon Musk has expressed reservations about doing so without government approval in writing.
“Starlink is a commercial service owned and controlled by SpaceX,” Musk posted on X Wednesday. “Usage of Starlink is limited to civilian or defensive activities and cannot be used for offensive military action, as doing so would be inappropriate for a commercial company.”
“He wants top cover,” Crenshaw said of Musk, adding that Ukraine’s request still “qualifies as a defensive action.”
Crenshaw joined Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and fellow committee member Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) for a sitdown with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, days before the cease-fire was announced Sunday and then promptly violated by Moscow.
Russia targeted power plants in Kyiv and other regions with hundreds of one-way attack drones, as well as launching dozens of missile strikes against other energy infrastructure in the following days.
“This is what happens when Russia sees the prospect of higher revenues for its war machine,” Zelensky posted on X Monday, referring to Trump’s deal with Moscow to export 300,000 metric tons of diesel to the US and global markets.
Ukraine responded with strikes on Russian oil refineries, apparently infuriating the president and putting him at loggerheads with Zelensky.
Trump has fumed about Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries causing prices to skyrocket.
“All he’s doing is making the world oil price higher. Well, I think that’s a disgrace,” the president told Newsmax Thursday.
Zelensky claimed that US officials subsequently threatened to cut off intelligence sharing with Ukraine, while his nation also experienced Starshield service interruptions.
“Starshield speeds have been improved, at the moment,” said Ukraine’s Chargé d’Affaires to the US Denys Sienik on Thursday. “We hope all will be resumed to the previous level.”
“Speed is critical for logistics, and for intercepting the jet-powered Shahed drones especially when Russia constantly uses them to attack our cities and commit war crimes and when Foreign Minister [Sergey] Lavrov openly states that Russia opposes a ceasefire,” explained Sienik.
Zelensky told reporters in Brussels Friday: “Has the speed been fully restored to what it was before? No. Is it being restored now? Yes.”
The White House, Pentagon and SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for comment.