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Volodymyr Zelensky has declared that Kyiv is “done” supporting a ceasefire on energy targets announced by Donald Trump after it was ignored by Russia.
Trump made the surprise announcement on Sunday that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to halt attacks on energy, after which Kyiv suspended strikes on refineries while Russia continued launching air attacks across Ukraine.
“The block [on attacking refineries] is out. We’re done,” Mr Zelensky told the Financial Times, after Russian strikes on power stations knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people.
It was the latest clear indication of Kyiv’s frustration with Trump, after the Ukrainian president said he felt betrayed by a decision to restrict the Ukrainian military’s use of SpaceX’s Starlink.
Zelensky is embroiled in a growing dispute with Trump (Reuters)
By effectively walking away from Trump’s demand that Ukraine halt attacks on refineries, Mr Zelensky risks deepening the biggest rift between Kyiv and Washington since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Although Trump has described the ceasefire as a requirement for both Moscow and Kyiv, his public comments have focused mainly on Ukraine’s attacks on Russian refineries, which he said over the weekend had “damn well better stop”.
Ukrainians fear the growing rift between Washington and Kyiv could have severe consequences on the battlefield, where the Ukrainian military still depends on technology provided by the US.
Officials in Kyiv have also reported that they have not received the usual warnings from Western allies about incoming Russian missiles, which rely on US satellite detectors.
At the same time, military-grade Starlink receptors have stopped working in Ukraine when mounted on fast-moving objects, interfering with the performance of Ukrainian drones that rely on them for onboard guidance systems over Ukrainian territory.
White House sources and SpaceX owner Elon Musk have both denied being behind the restriction, but Mr Zelensky was clear that he believed it to be a policy decision, saying:”It was not a technical problem, it was the will.”
Musk blamed Trump for the decision to restrict internet in Ukraine (Reuters)
Musk earlier blamed Trump for restrictions introduced on Starlink speed for members of the Ukrainian military.
The service delivers broadband internet and has been used for government and military communications by Ukraine in the war against Russia.
The outage came amid Trump’s demands for Ukraine to completely halt long-range strikes on Russian energy infrastructure.
Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski accused Musk of “playing politics” on Wednesday but the tech billionaire has now denied he was involved in the decision.
“Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and POTUS,” Musk wrote on X in response to a post by Ukraine’s foreign minister Mykhailo Fedorov saying that the technology was “critical” for the country.
“Starlink is a commercial service owned and controlled by SpaceX. Usage of Starlink is limited to civilian or defensive activities and cannot be used for offensive military action, as doing so would be inappropriate for a commercial company.”
Zelensky reacts during a meeting with Burnham at 10 Downing Street, 14 October 2026 (Reuters)
He had previously said that “no matter how much I disagree with the Ukraine policy, Starlink will never turn off its terminals… We would never do such a thing or use it as a bargaining chip.”
Musk later retweeted a post by another X user that said among other things: “SpaceX is a private company with zero obligation to help Ukraine, yet it stepped up when governments dragged their feet.”
The X owner captioned the repost: “True”.
Volodymyr Zelensky said he felt betrayed by the decision in an interview with Piers Morgan and that the shutdown meant “people would die” as a result.
Several combat missions failed on Tuesday evening as a result of the shutdown, an adviser on military technology to Zelensky told The Guardian.
A US official told Axios that the Trump administration was not involved in the Starlink limitations.
The Independent has contacted the White House for comment.
“This is not the right side of history,” Zelensky said on Piers Morgan Uncensored. Asked if he felt betrayed by decisions made over the last week, he said: “Really, yes.”
A Ukrainian serviceman of 47th brigade prepares a Starlink satellite internet systems at his positions at a front line (Reuters)
The outage came just as Ukraine was hit by ballistic missiles, despite Trump’s insistence that there is an energy ceasefire in place between the countries.
Poland has said that it pays for Ukraine’s Starlink subscription, which is crucial for guiding long-range drone strikes that have severely disrupted Russian logistics.
“Hey, @elonmusk, big man, are you playing politics with your products again?” Sikorski wrote in a post on X on Wednesday. “As your European customers, we are watching you.”
The restriction came amid Trump’s decision to lift sanctions against Russia and allow global diesel exports, with the US to buy 300,000 tons of the fuel.
He faced criticism from several corners, including from the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas, who told Washington that “Russia has started this war. We should not forget this.”