WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent knocked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for publicly accusing the Trump administration of throttling his country’s access to a military version of Starlink, which is critical for battlefield communications.
Zelensky alleged that someone in the administration gave orders to slow down satellite internet in objects cruising at 160 km/h or more, which undermined Kyiv’s drone operations.
“President Trump and Secretary Rubio have categorically said that no one in the Trump administration did that,” Bessent told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “And I think it is very reckless for President Zelensky to make such a charge.”
“I don’t know anything about that, but we’ve been very clear. And, you know, President Zelensky should be very careful about making statements like this that aren’t true.”
The mystery surrounding the limiting of Ukraine’s Starshield access has been dominated by confusion and finger-pointing.
Initially, top Ukrainian and European officials blamed near-trillionaire tech guru Elon Musk for curbing “Starlink” access. But Musk later claimed it was the military version of Starlink known as Starshield that was throttled and indicated it came from the Trump administration. Musk and a top Ukrainian official also suggested it was being restored.
However, Zelensky said in a prerecorded interview that aired on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday that the limit was still in effect.
“We [still] have [a] limitation. The speed is [a] maximum [of] 161 kilometers. Not miles, kilometers,” he said.
The slowing down of Starshield access came as President Trump was pressuring Ukraine to back down on its drone strikes on Russian energy targets.
Both Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied that the administration ordered the throttling, though a report from Reuters claimed that someone in the administration ordered it.
“Of course, the message came from government. I don’t know from whom, what cabinet, and et cetera. And I think it doesn’t work either way,” Zelensky said. “But it’s not my opinion. It’s [the] opinion of our generals, of our government.”
Around the time that the throttling was revealed, Zelensky claimed that the US stopped sharing critical intelligence with Ukraine about incoming ballistic missile attacks from Russia, something he said has since been reversed.
Bessent also defended Trump’s decision to ease up on sanctions regarding Russian diesel and postpone implementation of Russian sanctions included in a bi-partisan bill named after the late Sen. Lindsey Graham.
“The only thing that has been lifted is the diesel embargo. And, you know, I will point out the UK in May waived their embargo on diesel and jet fuel made with Russian crude,” Bessent said.
“Where’s the outrage for the rest of the world? President Zelensky does not criticize his European partners,” he added. “The Europeans are financing the Russian war machine. The US imports $4 billion of Russian products. One-point-eight billion of that [is] fertilizer. Europeans import more than ten times that.”
Zelensky had talks with US special peace envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on Sunday amid the souring relations and posted that peace would only come through “cooperation built on trust.”
Trump’s diesel deal with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin came as he grapples with midterm headaches due to high prices of the fuel that is heavily used by farmers.
The Treasury secretary also stressed that the Trump administration has enacted aggressive sanctions against Russia since the president took office in January of last year.
“First of all, the sanctions were doubled. The Biden administration, in an act of incredible bravery,” Bessent said sarcastically, “doubled the sanctions on the way out, in January of 2025. But we did not take those down.”
“President Trump sanctioned the two largest Russian energy companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, which dealt a catastrophic blow to the Russian energy industry,” he went on. “So no one has been tougher on Russian sanctions than President Trump.”
