Ukraine-Russia war live: Zelensky ‘betrayed’ by Trump as Musk claims Starlink restrictions down to US

Ukraine said Elon Musk’s SpaceX had restricted Starlink services on Wednesday, hampering the country’s attack and air-defence drone missions as worsening ties with Washington fuel concerns over US battlefield support.

Russia launched more missiles and drones at Ukrainian cities, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands in attacks that president Volodymyr Zelensky called “ostentatious disrespect” for US president Donald Trump’s so-called energy ceasefire.

Trump turned on Zelensky after lifting sanctions on Russian diesel. He told Kyiv to stop attacking Russian refineries and urged Ukrainians to replace Zelensky.

“It’s painful when President Trump chooses one side, not our side,” Zelensky told “Piers Morgan Uncensored”.

He said he was OK with Trump being in the middle of Ukraine and Russia, but “if you are in the middle, you have to stay in the middle.”

Asked about the restriction on the military version of SpaceX’s Starlink services in Ukraine, Zelensky said: “It’s a big mistake … This decision will bring a lot of human losses.” He did not say who was responsible.

Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, which operates Starlink, said the US government controlled the system’s speeds.

“Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS,” Musk wrote on ⁠the social media platform X, using the acronym for president of the United States. Musk is a close political ally ​of ⁠Trump’s.

In the interview, Zelensky also dismissed Trump’s comment that Ukraine needed a new leader. “It is a decision of our people,” Zelensky said. “No Trump, no Musk, not anyone in the world can choose the president or elect in other countries.”

Chancellor John Healey ​called on other nations to tighten sanctions on Russia-linked shipping, as he prepared to meet his foreign counterparts at the International Monetary Fund’s annual meetings in Bangkok ⁠on Thursday.

“My message to finance ministers here today … on Ukraine, is to stay the path on tough economic sanctions on Russia, especially a tighter ban on shipping services … that help (Russian president ⁠Vladimir) Putin’s sanctions-busting shadow fleet to ​operate,” ⁠he said.

Britain has imposed a series of sanctions on shipping and related services that it believes Russia ⁠uses to fund and equip its war on Ukraine.

However, a ​US ⁠official on Wednesday said ‌the Trump administration is considering easing sanctions on so-called shadow fleet vessels that have transported oil and petroleum products from ‌countries including Russia, Iran and Venezuela, in ‌an effort to reduce record-high global freight rates.

The US has proposed that European countries unfreeze some Russian sovereign assets immobilised after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and transfer them to a vehicle overseen by Washington in an attempt to revive peace talks, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing people briefed on the matter.

European delegates ⁠rebuffed the plan, which was pitched by US special envoy Steve Witkoff and US president ‌Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared ​Kushner, the report ‌said.

The US-Russia diesel deal can pave the way for further economic cooperation between the two countries, Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev said on Wednesday.

He added that Moscow would overcome any sanctions-related difficulties to ensure the diesel supplies.

The example of diesel cooperation with the US “will open other opportunities as well,” he told reporters.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will discuss cybersecurity with top officials on Wednesday, the Kremlin said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described it as an increasingly pressing issue.

He added that a number of countries were seeking to turn cyber technologies into weapons and Russia needed to be ready to face such challenges.

During six-hour talks in Miami last weekend, special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner suggested that the president was willing to strengthen protections for Ukraine as part of a revised peace plan, according to The Telegraph.

However, the discussions were frustrated after Trump agreed to allow Putin to export diesel to the US and globally amid rising fuel costs worldwide.

White House officials have reportedly denied any control over SpaceX amid a growing disagreement over restrictions placed on Starlink and Starshields in Ukraine.

Earlier Elon Musk claimed that Donald Trump controlled Starshields.

Now, Axios correspondent Barak Ravid has said: “White House officials told the Ukrainians they don’t have control over SpaceX, the sources said. One of the sources said the Trump administration is going to reach out to SpaceX to figure out what happened.”

Ukraine has launched an attack on Russia’s biggest data centre, owned by the country’s largest bank and technology company, Sberbank, a senior company executive said on Wednesday.

“We confirm that the data processing centre was attacked. At the same time, all of Sberbank’s systems and services are operating normally and without disruption,” Sberbank First Deputy CEO Alexander Vedyakhin told reporters.

The strike in the Saratov region on the Volga River followed three attacks in the past week on data centres owned by Russian tech group Yandex. Ukraine says it is responding to Russian attacks on its own data sites.

Along with Yandex, its main domestic rival, Sberbank is Russia’s leading developer of artificial intelligence. The domestic market is shared between Sberbank’s GigaChat model and YandexGPT.