Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has asked US President Donald Trump to impose sanctions on Russian and Chinese companies that he says are building Rassvet, a satellite network he describes as a potential competitor to Elon Musk’s Starlink. He made the call in an interview with the Financial Times, the British business newspaper, as reported on 3 October 2026 by the English edition of Ukrainska Pravda and its European Pravda service. This is a sanctions and diplomacy story rather than a product story: the reporting describes a political request, not a network anyone can buy.
Key facts
- Zelenskyy said Russia has accelerated work on its own satellite network with China’s support after Russian troops began using SpaceX’s Starlink for military purposes, according to Ukrainska Pravda.
- He said Rassvet could become operational by “the end of the year, beginning next year”.
- He said he has repeatedly asked Trump to sanction the companies involved, most recently when the two met in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
- Russia’s Defence Ministry said a Russian attack on Kyiv damaged a data centre supporting mobile internet services and Starlink satellite communications, The Korea Times reported on 27 September 2026.
- Trump said on the same weekend that he hoped Zelenskyy would “settle” with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
- Neither report says Trump or his administration has acted on the sanctions request.
What Zelenskyy said about Rassvet
Ukrainska Pravda quotes him saying: “We know that China works on satellites, works on the possibility of helping Russia with a similar Starlink.” The outlet does not name the companies he wants designated, and no Russian, Chinese or SpaceX comment appears in either report.
The figures that exist, and the ones that don’t
SpaceX’s own Starlink site describes the service as the world’s largest satellite constellation, built from thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit and sold in more than 100 countries and markets. Those company-published figures are the only hard numbers on either side of the comparison Zelenskyy draws. For Rassvet, neither report gives an owner, operator, satellite count, orbit, frequency band or capacity, and no Ukraine-specific terminal total is disclosed by SpaceX or cited in either account.
That gap also marks the limit of the story for the wider satellite-internet market: the only claim on the record about competition is Zelenskyy’s own characterisation, made while requesting sanctions. Ukraine’s military dependence on the terminals is set out in our earlier piece on why Starlink became the backbone of Ukraine’s battlefield communications, and access terms are already a diplomatic issue: Ukraine has been pressing Washington and SpaceX over limits on its Starlink service and has turned to European partners while those issues drag on.
Trump’s message: ‘settle with Putin’
The Korea Times, the English-language South Korean daily, reported that Trump spoke about his UN General Assembly meeting with Zelenskyy and said he wanted the Ukrainian leader to make a deal and settle with Putin, and wanted Putin to settle with him. Afterwards, the outlet reported, Zelenskyy told journalists he trusted the White House could help end Russia’s invasion.
The appeal landed in the middle of an intense exchange of missile, glide-bomb and drone strikes that the same report says killed 10 people across both countries that weekend — attacks the outlet does not link to satellite connectivity, with one exception.
The exception: a data centre tied to Starlink traffic
That single point of contact between the fighting and satellite internet rests entirely on the Russian Defence Ministry’s account of its own strike. The Korea Times report does not name the facility or its operator, does not say whether mobile or Starlink service was interrupted, for how long or for how many users, and carries no Ukrainian government or SpaceX response. Nothing in either report corroborates the claim, and neither cites an independent assessment of damage to Ukrainian internet infrastructure that weekend. Read strictly, what is on the record is that Moscow says it hit such a facility — not that Starlink traffic in Ukraine was degraded.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the Rassvet claim sourced to?
To Zelenskyy himself. Ukrainska Pravda attributes the network’s name, the timeline and the sanctions request to what he told the Financial Times, not to published Ukrainian intelligence material, satellite-tracking data, or any Russian or Chinese official statement. No independent confirmation that the network exists or is near completion appears in the reporting.
Has Washington responded to the request?
No designation, decision or statement from the Trump administration on the request appears in either Ukrainska Pravda’s or The Korea Times’ account, and no US official is quoted in either report confirming that the companies Zelenskyy has in mind are even under consideration.
Does any of this change Starlink availability or pricing for customers outside Ukraine?
No. Neither report touches Starlink’s consumer service, its coverage map or its prices in any market, and Rassvet is not described as being sold to the public anywhere, so there is no competing offer for customers to compare.
What is Zelenskyy’s broader sanctions argument?
According to The Korea Times, Zelenskyy used his appearance at the UN General Assembly to urge countries to deprive Russia of revenue through sanctions and trade restrictions so Moscow could not afford to prolong the war. The Rassvet request applies that logic to a specific set of companies rather than to Russian exports in general.
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