Bessent blasts reckless Zelensky for faulting US over Starlink throttling

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent knocked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for publicly accusing the Trump administration of throttling his country’s access to a military version of Starlink, which is critical for battlefield communications.Zelensky alleged that someone in the administration gave orders to slow down satellite internet in objects cruising at 160 km/h or more, which undermined Kyiv’s drone operations.“President Trump and Secretary Rubio have categorically said that no one in the Trump administration did that,” Bessent told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday.“And I think it is very reckless for President Zelensky to make such a charge.”“I don’t know anything about that, but we’ve been very clear.

And, you know, President Zelensky should be very careful about making statements like this that aren’t true.”The mystery surrounding the limiting of Ukraine’s Starshield access has been dominated by confusion and finger-pointing.Initially, top Ukrainian and European officials blamed near-trillionaire tech guru Elon Musk for curbing “Starlink” access.But Musk later claimed it was the military version of Starlink known as Starshield that was throttled and indicated it came from the Trump administration.

Musk and a top Ukrainian official also suggested it was being restored.However, Zelensky said in a prerecorded interview that aired on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday that the limit was still in effect.“We [still] have [a] limitation.

The speed is [a] maximum [of] 161 kilometers.Not miles, kilometers,” he said.

The slowing down of Starshield access came as President Trump was pressuring Ukraine to back down on its drone strikes on Russian energy targets.Both Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied that the administration ordered the throttling, though a report from Reuters claimed that someone in the administration ordered it.“Of course, the message came from government.

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