Bessent tells Zelensky to be very careful after he blames Washington for the Starlink slowdown in Ukraine

The argument is about a speed limit, and about who set it. Ukraine military uses Starshield, the government version of the Starlink satellite network built by Elon Musk company SpaceX, to run drones and vehicles. Zelensky told NBC Meet the Press that terminals in Ukraine now cut out above 161 kilometers per hour, while vehicles tested in European Union territory at 180 kilometers per hour kept their connection, and that his generals and his government concluded the order came from the American government. Technically, SpaceX did it, he said. If President Trump decides today to lift this decision, it will immediately work as it was before.

The administration answer came from the Treasury secretary on the same program. President Trump and Secretary Rubio have categorically said that no one under the Trump administration did that, Bessent said. I think it is very reckless for President Zelensky to make such a charge. President Zelensky should be very careful about making statements like this that are not true. Musk himself said on X last week that the United States government and the president are ultimately responsible for any limits on Starshield, because the service is controlled by the government. Reuters has reported that someone in the administration ordered the restriction. The White House denies it. Those accounts cannot all be right, and none of them has been settled in public, as of October 18.

Zelensky also said American intelligence sharing with Ukraine was blocked for a period, which Kyiv felt as a blind window on incoming Russian ballistic missiles, and has since been restored. On Sunday he spoke with Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, and posted afterward that peace comes only through strength and cooperation built on trust.

Bessent used the rest of the interview to defend the diesel deal and the sanctions waiver, and to turn the question back on Europe. The only thing that has been lifted is the diesel embargo, he said, noting that Britain waived its own embargo in May. The Europeans import more than ten times the Russian products the United States does, he said. Where is the outrage for the rest of the world? Zelensky does not criticize his European partners. The exchange leaves the alliance where the week has left it throughout: Washington easing pressure on Moscow in the name of prices and a settlement, Kyiv saying every easing is read in the Kremlin as permission, and now a public warning from a cabinet secretary to a wartime president to watch what he says.