Zelenskyy accuses Trump of choosing wrong ‘side of history’ as relations fray

Ukraine has accused the United States of helping Russia by failing to warn it of incoming missile strikes and hobbling the country’s military response through changes to the Starlink system it uses on the battlefield.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on US tech billionaire Elon Musk to restore the satellite internet service, which Ukraine says has been slowed down.

“I hope that it’s a mistake, maybe huge technical problem,” Zelenskyy told UK journalist Piers Morgan. “I don’t know, but we are asking to do it, to switch [it] on.”

Former Ukrainian defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov later said that “Starlink’s operation at speeds up to 160 km/h is being restored. Strike drones and interceptor drones should be able to fly again”.

Zelenskyy replied in the affirmative when asked if he felt “betrayed” after US President Donald Trump announced a diesel-supply deal with heavily sanctioned Russia.

“It’s painful when President Trump chooses one side, not our side,” he said. “I think his advisors are wrong. I don’t know who is pushing him not to the right side. This is not (the) right side of history,”

Zelenskyy had framed the lack of warnings from allies about a wave of powerful strikes on Tuesday night and early Wednesday as “completely unjust”, and accused Russia of wilfully flouting a supposed “energy ceasefire” announced unilaterally by Trump.

A senior official in Kyiv said that the US had in recent days threatened to stop providing intelligence about Russian missile launches that Ukraine uses to thwart attacks. Trump denied doing so on Tuesday.

Defence officials also suggested the US was behind slower speeds reported on some Starlink internet terminals which help Ukraine’s military hit Russian-occupied territory and operate interceptor drones.

“It’s obvious they (the United States) are helping Russia for some reason,” the senior official told the Agence France-Presse news agency.

Zelenskyy adviser Sergiy Beskrestnov said the attacks and Starlink restrictions were more than a coincidence.

“Through their actions, our partners are depriving us of one of the few chances we have to defend the country against jet-powered Shahed drones,” he wrote on Telegram.

There was no immediate comment from either Musk or SpaceX.

Russia ‘carefully noting all this’

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia was watching for any sign that US backing for Ukraine may have shifted.

“We are carefully noting all this. It is too early to draw any systemic conclusions,” he told reporters.

President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy on economic cooperation, Kirill Dmitriev, meanwhile said the first contracts on providing diesel to the United States would be signed in the coming days.

“We are in close, hourly contact with the American side, and everything is moving very quickly,” he added.

Trump, facing crunch midterm elections next month, has blamed Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries for the squeeze on fuel supplies and increase in prices at the pump.

But most experts say the real reason is the joint US and Israeli attacks on Iran since late February, which have seen Tehran block off the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for oil and gas shipments.

Missile attacks hit Kyiv

Ballistic missiles have now struck the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, for two nights running, before air raid sirens could sound in time to warn people to take cover in basements, bomb shelters or metro stations.

“Russia has never before shown such ostentatious disrespect toward the United States,” said Zelenskyy, accusing Russia of squandering a chance to ease hostilities.

The lack of warning has been reported only rarely during the conflict and Ukrainian officials have previously suggested the Russian military’s use of hard-to-detect missiles or potential technical issues could be to blame.

Six people were killed and dozens more wounded in Kyiv on Wednesday, the authorities said, while significant damage to energy facilities and equipment knocked out power to swathes of the city.

Power plants came under ballistic-missile attack in the eastern Kharkiv region, while Zhytomyr in the northwest, Sumy in the northeast and Chernigiv in the north were also hit.

Russia has previously targeted Ukraine’s power stations and heating infrastructure, crippling supplies before winter, when temperatures can plummet to as low as -20C.

Two people were killed in the central Dnipropetrovsk region and a further person in Zaporizhzhia in the southeast, the authorities said.

Six others were killed in a drone strike at a wholesaler in the western city of Lutsk, the interior ministry said.

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