US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of being “very reckless” for blaming the Trump administration for a speed cap placed on Ukraine’s access to Starshield, the military version of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet network. Bessent made the comments on NBC News’ Meet the Press on Sunday, October 18, in an interview with host Kristen Welker, hours after the same programme aired a separate, prerecorded interview in which Zelensky said the restriction originated with the US government and was still in force.
By the numbers: 100 mph — the speed above which objects reportedly lost service; 161 km/h — the cap Zelensky said was still in effect on Sunday; three days — the stretch Ukraine says it went without Starshield during Russian ballistic missile attacks.
What Bessent said
- Zelensky was “very reckless” to fault Washington over the slowdown, according to the New York Post.
- Asked by Welker how the disruption happened, Bessent said he did not know, Newsweek reported.
- He asked why Zelensky criticised Washington but not European governments, saying “the Europeans are financing the Russian war machine,” according to MEAWW News.
- He warned the Ukrainian leader to be careful about where he assigned blame, the Kyiv Independent reported.
What the cap actually is
Three different speed figures are circulating, and they are closer than they look. MEAWW News, citing a source familiar with the matter, reported that service was cut for objects travelling faster than 100 mph — which converts to roughly 161 km/h, the same number Zelensky gave when he described the cap still in place on Sunday, per the New York Post. The 160 km/h threshold also attributed to him reads as a rounding of that same limit rather than a separate, earlier setting. No outlet has published the underlying order, so the precise wording, and whether the threshold has ever been changed, remains unverified.
What it does to Ukraine’s drone defence
Ukraine’s armed forces rely on Starshield to conduct military operations, the Kyiv Independent reported, and MEAWW News said the restriction applied to Ukrainian drones, aircraft and helicopters alike — anything crossing the threshold, not a specific platform.
Newsweek said Zelensky described the cap as degrading his forces’ ability to use some interceptor drones against fast-moving Russian drones, the same problem Ukrainian officials said the limits hit their air-defence drones. The mechanics of that are unforgiving: an interceptor has to out-run the strike drone it is chasing, so the moment it accelerates into a firing position is the moment it crosses the threshold and risks losing its link — the opposite of a degraded-but-usable service. MEAWW News said Ukraine reported losing access to the military version of Starlink across three days of Russian ballistic missile attacks, the window in which interceptors and air-defence aircraft would have been flying hardest.
Who ordered it remains disputed
The New York Post said the episode has been dominated by confusion and finger-pointing. Ukrainian and European officials initially blamed Elon Musk for curbing “Starlink” access, the paper reported, before Musk said it was Starshield that had been throttled and indicated the decision came from the Trump administration. Musk and a senior Ukrainian official also suggested the service was being restored.
The Telegraph reported that Musk pitched the slowdown to Trump on October 16, citing multiple sources familiar with the matter who said Trump “agreed,” according to the Kyiv Independent. Reuters reported that someone in the administration ordered the throttling, the New York Post said.
Trump denied any involvement earlier in the week. MEAWW News quoted him telling reporters on Friday that he did not do it, that he heard about it from the media and that he did not think the service had been slowed at all. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Saturday that no one at the White House ordered anyone to slow internet speeds so that certain drones could not use it, Newsweek reported, adding that it “sort of happened” but that his understanding was that it had since been restored and was “back to where it was before.” Bessent said Trump and Rubio had “categorically” said no one in the administration ordered the slowdown, per the New York Post.
Zelensky said he did not know which part of the administration made the decision, and that the cap had not in fact been lifted. “Of course, the message came from government. I don’t know from whom, what cabinet, and et cetera,” he said, as quoted by the New York Post, adding that the view was shared by Ukraine’s generals and government. He said separately that “technically SpaceX did it,” according to the Kyiv Independent.
Related developments
Intelligence sharing. Newsweek reported that Zelensky told Welker US intelligence sharing “was blocked for some period of time” before being restored, leaving Ukraine without American data during the same three-day stretch of ballistic missile attacks. He said European partners supplied some intelligence but that only the United States can warn Ukraine when Russia launches ballistic missiles. Ukrainian officials said last week that Kyiv received no advance warning for two waves of attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday, Newsweek reported, citing The New York Times, which said it was unclear why and noted the missiles may have been S-400s that leave little time for warning. The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that Ukrainian officials said senior US military leaders had warned their counterparts that intelligence cooperation was at risk if Ukraine kept striking Russian oil refineries; US officials denied making such a threat and said sharing was continuing, Newsweek said. Newsweek added that the Pentagon referred its request for comment to Trump’s remarks that there had been no pause.
Sanctions and diesel. The dispute follows Trump’s move to waive most of the sanctions and tariffs in a bipartisan Russia sanctions bill he signed last month, the Kyiv Independent reported, and a diesel agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin that the New York Post linked to high fuel prices ahead of the US midterm elections. The paper also reported that the Starshield slowdown came as Trump was pressing Ukraine to ease off its drone strikes on Russian energy targets.
Where it leaves Washington and Kyiv
Relations have soured publicly: Newsweek quoted Trump saying he is not a big fan of Zelensky and finds him harder to deal with than Putin, while Zelensky said he still trusts America and hopes Trump will change his decisions. The New York Post said Zelensky held talks with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on Sunday and wrote that peace would come only through “cooperation built on trust.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Bessent say whether the United States still considers Ukraine an ally?
No. Newsweek reported that Welker asked him twice to say definitively, and Bessent instead said Washington provides three different things to Ukraine and that “that’s what you do for an ally.” Pressed again, he replied that he was neither the secretary of state nor the president.
What did Bessent say about the Russia sanctions waiver?
He said the only thing lifted was the diesel embargo and that no sanctions had been lifted, only waived, according to the Kyiv Independent. He noted the UK waived its own embargo on diesel and jet fuel made with Russian crude in May, and said Trump had sanctioned Rosneft and Lukoil, Russia’s two largest energy companies.
Who did Bessent say Zelensky should be criticising instead?
Europe. MEAWW News reported that Bessent asked why Zelensky was faulting Washington rather than European governments, saying “the Europeans are financing the Russian war machine.”
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