Editor’s note (October 22nd 2026): This article has been updated.
On October 9th Mr Trump announced a dubious deal to buy Russian diesel. IN WASHINGTON last week’s move to cut Ukrainian drones’ connections to Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite internet service, might have seemed like a diplomatic warning. In Ukraine it was felt on the battlefield. It appears to have come from a small circle around the president, Mr Musk and Steve Witkoff, the special envoy to Russia. Reports suggest Mr Musk wanted to punish Ukraine for striking Russian refineries. Mr Musk has a complicated relationship with Ukraine. He has frequently railed against President Volodymyr Zelensky. But his decision to provide satellite connectivity in the first days of the war was critical to Ukraine’s survival. One insider insists Mr Musk is sympathetic to Ukraine, “though you do get the impression that Putin sometimes gets to him first. For Vladimir Putin, the cut-offs capped a wonderful fortnight. Reports that Mr Trump restricted intelligence-sharing, though, were misleading.
In a single sortie, one unit saw $1m-worth of drones fall from the sky after limits were imposed on any that flew faster than 160kph. (By October 22nd the links were functioning again without speed limits, according to Ukrainian commanders.) No one in Donald Trump’s administration admits to making the decision. In 2022 he used a similar mechanism to stop a naval drone attack near Crimea. A failure by American satellites to warn Ukraine of incoming ballistic missiles may have been due to Russian jamming and bad weather.
One official says he contacted the White House only after imposing the restrictions. The Americans then demanded an “energy ceasefire”, but explained this meant that only Ukraine must stop hitting Russian refineries, not that Russia must stop hitting Ukrainian power plants.
Mr Zelensky is a convenient scapegoat. Mr Trump’s envoys, Mr Witkoff and Jared Kushner, incorrectly see Mr Putin’s motivations as economic and territorial rather than nationalistic, making them vulnerable to Russian manipulation. A conversation on October 19th between Mr Zelensky and Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, offered Ukraine a glimmer of hope. His renewed involvement in Ukraine suggests a fightback by the administration’s Russia hawks. But damage has been done. Mr Trump has again shown a preference for Mr Putin over Mr Zelensky. The Ukrainian president’s confrontational responses have deepened tensions. That may be misplaced.
An American government source insists Mr Trump is not trying to force Ukrainian capitulation, but is the victim of “a successful Russian info-op”. The president, the source says, is panicked by terrible polling ahead of the midterms. “Trump creates a horrible situation,” says a former official, but he is also “dependent on idiots”. Mr Zelensky’s turn to denouncing Mr Trump for “weak” decisions seems based on a gamble that an electoral drubbing will weaken him. The more a Democratic Congress investigates him, “the more aggressive he’ll be”, says a sympathetic congressional staffer. “This is not good for a country like Ukraine.”
