Elon Musk put the Starlink switch in the president's hand on Wednesday night. Within a day, Volodymyr Zelensky stopped obeying Donald Trump.
Musk wrote it on X, answering former defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov: "Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the U.S. government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS." The White House declined to answer Wall Street Journal questions about the limits, and said the president "remains optimistic that we'll ultimately get a peace deal done." A senior U.S. official told Axios the administration "had nothing to do with" them.
Zelensky told the Financial Times early Thursday that Ukraine will go back to hitting Russian refineries after three days of holding off at Washington's request. "We're done," he said. Overnight the Ryazan refinery south of Moscow burned. The regional governor confirmed the fire; Russia's defense ministry called it an attempted "massive attack" and said its air defenses shot down 166 drones.
Trump pressed Zelensky at the United Nations in September to stop the refinery strikes, one of about six American requests the Journal counted. On Oct. 9 Trump spent 90 minutes on the phone with Vladimir Putin, announced a diesel deal, and his Treasury licensed Russian diesel into American ports through April 2027. On Oct. 10 he told Ukraine to stop the strikes and said it was "time for Ukraine to get a new president." On Oct. 11 he declared an "energy ceasefire." The Kremlin never said it agreed. Trump told the Journal: "They agreed. You know why? Because I said you agreed."
Kyiv held. Ukraine hit no refineries from Oct. 11 to 13 while Russia struck 19 Ukrainian regions.
On Tuesday night the military Starlink terminals slowed. A Zelensky adviser said anything moving faster than 100 mph lost its signal, with no warning, and that "a number of missions" failed. The same night Russia put 39 missiles and 120 drones into Kyiv and Kharkiv and left 600,000 people without power. Zelensky wrote that "there was no warning from partners" before the strike. He says American military officials warned that the intelligence would stop too unless the energy strikes ended, and that the throttle was "not a technical" problem. On Wednesday he said he felt "betrayed." Ukraine's top diplomat in Washington told lawmakers the limits "give Russia an upper hand," the Journal reported, and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., told the paper: "If we start going dark on Ukraine there will be consequences, mark my words."
