Exclusive | Vladimir Putin giving the middle finger to Trump by breaking energy cease-fire: GOP congressman

WASHINGTON — Russian President Vladimir Putin is “giving the middle finger” to President Trump by striking Ukrainian power plants and civilian buildings in apparent violation of a cease-fire, Rep.Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) told The Post Friday.“President Trump said that he struck a deal to stop attacks on energy and infrastructure,” said Crenshaw, who visited Kyiv last week as part of a congressional delegation.

“And Putin in the last few days is attacking infrastructure. So, in my opinion, President Trump should … absolutely punish him for that.”The Russian leader is “giving the middle finger to our president,” the congressman and former Navy SEAL added.“In my opinion, the president should not take that … Putin insulted you in the most personal way possible, and you have plenty of leverage to destroy him for it.”That leverage includes making use of congressionally approved sanctions to strong-arm Moscow back to the negotiating table and help bring to an end the nearly five-year war, as well as granting Kyiv full access to the satellite internet system Starlink and its US military-controlled network, Starshield.Crenshaw said Ukraine desperately needs satellite connectivity over Russia and Russian-occupied territories to guide drone attacks on the Kremlin’s mobile ballistic missile launchers.“Ukrainian drones … can hit these targets, but they can’t navigate to them,” he explained.

“They’ve hit stuff inside Russia, but it’s difficult.You really need Starlink to navigate to them.”“Elon Musk just put out a statement, you know, he’s talking about Starshield.

… That’s a newer, relatively new thing.It’s, it’s not proliferated.

There’s not as many satellites as we need yet,” Crenshaw continued.“Zelensky’s been very clear he will only … hit ballistic missiles, nothing else, no civilian infrastructure, nothing.”In a statement on X Friday, the Ukrainian leader said Starlink is only used by his military to int...