Ukraine accused the United States of assisting Russia by failing to provide warnings of incoming missile attacks and restricting satellite communications used by Ukrainian forces on the battlefield.
The accusations followed two nights of Russian missile strikes on Kyiv, with some missiles hitting before air raid warnings and 15 people killed across Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Elon Musk to restore slowed Starlink capabilities, while former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said connectivity for strike and interceptor drones was being restored. The dispute comes as Iranian authorities intensify efforts to block Starlink, viewing it as a potential tool of war for espionage, military coordination and intelligence gathering.
“It’s obvious they [the United States] are helping Russia for some reason,” a senior Ukrainian official told French media.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Elon Musk to restore Starlink capabilities that Kyiv said had been slowed, expressing hope that the restrictions resulted from a technical problem. Former Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov later said operations at speeds of up to 99 miles per hour were being restored, allowing strike and interceptor drones to operate again. Musk said restrictions involving Starshield, which Ukraine relies on for battlefield communications, were controlled by the U.S. government rather than SpaceX. A senior Ukrainian official also said Washington had recently threatened to stop providing intelligence about Russian missile launches, although President Donald Trump denied doing so Tuesday. Zelensky adviser Sergiy Beskrestnov argued that the missile attacks and satellite restrictions were more than coincidental, saying the changes deprived Ukraine of one of its limited means of defending against jet-powered Shahed drones.
The dispute comes as tensions between Kyiv and Washington grow over the Trump administration’s approach toward Moscow. Zelensky said he felt “betrayed” after Trump announced a deal to obtain diesel from Russia, while Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev said initial supply contracts with the United States could be signed within days. Trump has blamed Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries for pressure on fuel supplies and prices, while experts attribute the principal disruption to U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran and Tehran’s subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow was monitoring indications of a possible shift in U.S. support for Ukraine but considered it too early to reach broader conclusions. The combination of disputes over intelligence, battlefield communications, and Russian energy trade places Washington’s relationship with Kyiv under renewed pressure as Russian strikes continue targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure. (AFP+EIR)
