What Trump-Putin's diesel deal, Musk-owned Starlink curbs mean for Zelensky's Ukraine?

For Volodymyr Zelensky’s Ukraine, a US sanctions waiver on Russian oil and sudden restrictions on Starlink have raised fresh concerns about Washington’s support for Kyiv. As Russia intensifies attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, the developments threaten to weaken drone operations, disrupt missile warnings and increase pressure on Zelensky to negotiate with Moscow.

Russia strikes Kyiv power plants as Ukraine faces fresh threats

Overnight, Russia struck three power plants supplying Kyiv, apparently seeking to disrupt heating and electricity as temperatures fall. Zelensky said Ukraine received no warning of incoming Russian ballistic missiles from its Western allies for a second consecutive night, leaving authorities without an air raid alert.

Russia has also struck two bridges in Kyiv, petrol stations, city-centre buildings and warehouses outside the capital. Casualties are rising, while faster, jet-powered Russian drones are increasingly challenging Ukraine’s stretched air defences.

Quick answers to key questions

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Ukraine said Starlink connections could switch off or become unstable when drones exceeded certain speeds, with a 160 kph ceiling reported. The restrictions could make some interceptor and strike missions harder to carry out.

Ukraine’s forces use Starlink for battlefield communications, intelligence gathering, drone operations and logistics. Its satellite links are especially useful where conventional communications are unreliable or disrupted.

Ukrainian officials reported communication failures and said some missions were disrupted or cancelled. They also said the restrictions complicated drone operations and military logistics.

That has not been conclusively established. Ukrainian officials suspected a link to pressure on Kyiv to stop refinery attacks, but the reason for the restrictions was not immediately clear.

The oil deal heightened tensions between Washington and Kyiv, while the reported absence of missile warnings added uncertainty about intelligence sharing. US officials attributed the warning gap to a technical malfunction and said intelligence sharing had not been suspended.

Any disruption to intelligence or communications could further weaken Ukraine’s ability to defend its cities.

Starlink restrictions threaten Ukraine’s drone warfare

Ukraine’s military relies on SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service to operate reconnaissance and interceptor drones, gather intelligence and conduct long-range strikes against Russian targets.

Ukrainian officials said SpaceX imposed restrictions on Tuesday night, causing connections to switch off when drones exceeded speeds of 160 kph and, in some cases, 80 kph. Service was partially restored on Wednesday, but Ukraine’s Defence Ministry said a 160 kph ceiling remained in place.

That limit could prevent some Ukrainian interceptor drones from catching Russian jet-powered drones.

“The situation is better than it was this morning, but 160 kph is not enough for intercepting” some Russian drones, a Ukrainian official said.

The ministry said it remained in contact with partners and SpaceX to secure stable service and prevent sudden restrictions. Kyiv is seeking answers about why the curbs were imposed. A senior US official said the Trump administration was not responsible.

Trump-Putin diesel deal deepens tensions between Washington and Kyiv

The Starlink restrictions came days after US President Donald Trump agreed to lift sanctions on Russian oil sales, triggering another dispute with Zelensky.

The Ukrainian president criticised the move, after which Trump called for Ukraine to elect a new president.

Ukrainian officials suspect the Starlink curbs may have been intended to pressure Kyiv into accepting Trump’s demand that it stop attacking Russian oil refineries. However, no conclusive evidence links the restrictions to that demand.

The developments have reinforced concerns that Washington could use its leverage over Ukraine’s military capabilities to push Zelensky towards a settlement with Russia on unfavourable terms.

Missing US missile warnings raise intelligence-sharing concerns

The Starlink disruption followed reports that Ukraine had received no early warning of a Russian ballistic missile attack. Ukrainian officials said the US had provided such alerts for years as part of intelligence sharing between the two countries.

US officials attributed the gap to a technical malfunction, while some Ukrainian officials suspected political pressure from the Trump administration.

Trump said on Tuesday that intelligence sharing had not been suspended. Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte made similar comments on Wednesday.

Serhii Beskrestnov, a military technology adviser to Zelensky, cautioned against drawing premature conclusions, noting that Russian S-400 missile launches had gone undetected before.

Nevertheless, the absence of warnings for two consecutive days has heightened concern, particularly as the second incident coincided with the Starlink restrictions.

Trump’s March 2025 intelligence pause offers a warning

Ukraine has experienced a similar crisis before. In March 2025, Trump temporarily halted intelligence sharing following his contentious Oval Office meeting with Zelensky.

The suspension deprived Ukraine of valuable information about Russian positions and movements. Ukrainian forces subsequently lost a significant portion of the territory they had occupied in Russia’s Kursk region before intelligence sharing resumed.

A confirmed suspension now would represent another serious setback for Kyiv, which faces mounting pressure on the battlefield and worsening conditions at home.

Zelensky appeals to US partnership as Europe questions Musk

Speaking at a meeting in London with British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, Zelensky acknowledged the difficulties Ukraine faced.

“We had massive [Russian] attacks today and it’s a pity that we also had difficulties ... about Starlink and about intelligence and a lot of different surprises,” he said.

“We count on the partnership with the US but we just want to be very honest and very clear and be a strong partner,” he added.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski also challenged Elon Musk over the restrictions. “Hey, big man, are you playing politics with your products again? As your European customers, we are watching you,” he wrote on X.

What Trump-Putin diesel deal and Starlink curbs mean for Ukraine

Three developments will shape the implications for Kyiv: whether SpaceX removes the remaining speed restrictions, whether Ukraine continues to miss missile warnings, and whether Washington intensifies pressure over Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries.

Until those questions are resolved, Ukraine faces a harder air defence campaign and greater uncertainty over the American support it has relied on throughout the war.

About the Author

Sayantani Biswas is an assistant editor at Livemint with seven years of experience covering geopolitics, foreign policy, international relations and global power dynamics. She reports on Indian and international politics, including elections worldwide, and specialises in historically grounded analysis of contemporary conflicts and state decisions. She joined Mint in 2021, after covering politics at publications including The Telegraph. <br> She holds an MPhil in Comparative Literature from Jadavpur University (2019), with a specialisation in postcolonial Latin American literature. Her research examined economic nationalism through Eduardo Galeano’s Open Veins of Latin America. She also writes on political language, cultural memory and the long shadows of conflict. <br> Biswas grew up in Durgapur, an industrial town in West Bengal shaped by migration, which drew families from across India to the Durgapur Steel Plant. As the only child in a joint family, she spent years listening—almost obsessively—to her grandparents’ testimonies of struggle, fear and loss as they fled Bangladesh during the Partition of 1947. This formative exposure to lived historical memory later converged with her training in Comparative Literature, equipping her to analyse socio-economic structures and their reverberations. <br> Outside the newsroom, she gravitates towards cultural history and critical theory, returning often to texts such as Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. As a journalist, she is committed to accuracy, intellectual rigour and fairness, and believes political reporting demands not only clarity and speed, but historical depth, contextual precision, and a disciplined resistance to spectacle.