Throttled, Blinded, Abandoned: Whose Side Is Trump On?
In a single week, Ukraine’s drones were slowed, its early warning went silent, and its president was told by the American president to step aside — while Washington cut a fuel deal that pays the Kremlin. Europe is arming for a war it may have to fight alone. Congress has gone home.
Overnight into Wednesday, without warning, the satellite links that guide Ukraine’s drones got slower. Serhii Beskrestnov, Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s adviser on defense technology, confirmed on Telegram that SpaceX had imposed a speed limit on Starlink terminals in motion — the mounts that let Ukrainian drones fly past Russian jamming. According to the Associated Press, the change made slower-flying attack drones easier for Russian defenses to shoot down. It came the same week Kyiv was hit by ballistic missiles that its allies never warned it about, and days after Donald Trump said Ukraine should get a new president.
Any one of these events could be explained away. Taken together, they form a pattern that Americans can no longer afford to ignore: at nearly every decision point, this administration is choosing the outcome Vladimir Putin wants.
I. The Throttle
Starlink has been the backbone of Ukraine’s battlefield communications since 2022. Over time, its resistance to jamming made it essential for long-range drones and for the heavy hexacopters that carry supplies to the front, Reuters reports. A source in Ukraine’s defense ministry told the wire service the new limits significantly complicate logistics and some drone operations. Beskrestnov wrote that Ukraine had been deprived of one of its few remaining defenses against Russia’s Shahed drones, Al Jazeera reported. The restriction reportedly applies to Starshield, SpaceX’s military service, and Ukraine’s forces were given no notice, according to Militarnyi.
Who made the call? Elon Musk himself pointed upward. He wrote on X that the military version of Starlink is controlled by the U.S. military and by Trump, according to the AP’s account; the Pentagon and Space Force did not respond to questions. Another Ukrainian official told AFP that Washington was throttling the service and helping Russia, and Poland, which pays for Ukraine’s Starlink subscriptions, reacted angrily, Al Jazeera reported.
Reuters notes the timing: the throttle arrived as Washington was pressing Kyiv to stop striking Russian oil refineries — even though Starlink does not work inside Russia, and the drones hitting Russian refineries use other systems. In other words, the slowdown cannot stop the refinery strikes Trump objects to. What it does degrade is Ukraine’s ability to defend itself on its own soil.
II. Flying Blind: The Early-Warning Silence
On Tuesday, Zelenskyy said Ukraine received no warning from its partners before five Russian ballistic missiles slammed into civilian infrastructure in Kyiv, ABC News reported. Later that night, more missiles hit the capital’s energy system — and again, he said, no warning came. Russian strikes on Kyiv overnight on October 13 killed three people and hit a power plant and an apartment tower, according to The New Voice of Ukraine.
“This is precisely what helps prevent people from being killed — when there is an early warning about ballistic missiles.”
— President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, October 13, 2026
Here the record demands precision, because precision is what separates journalism from rumor. Trump insists the U.S. has not stopped sharing intelligence. A senior Ukrainian official described the missing warning as a “failure,” possibly caused by circumstances such as weather. Zelenskyy himself did not name which partner fell short. The Kyiv Post observed that early warning of Russian ballistic launches is one of the hardest U.S. capabilities for Europe to replace.
But the threat is not hypothetical. Zelenskyy told NPR that U.S. officials warned his generals that intelligence sharing could be cut off if Ukraine kept hitting Russian refineries. Axios reported that envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner delivered that threat during talks in Miami on October 9. Ukrainian officials told the Kyiv Independent that Washington called Ukraine’s top military leaders and threatened to switch off both intelligence sharing and PURL, the European-funded pipeline for American weapons.
And inside the White House, the idea is live. Semafor reports that an intelligence cutoff is actively being discussed, with one administration official saying Trump is angry and “could order it.” The most notable dissent comes from inside Trump’s own cabinet: CIA Director John Ratcliffe is said to oppose the move. When the president’s own spy chief is the one arguing for keeping America’s word to an ally, the problem is not the intelligence community.
III. A Truce That Only Binds One Side
On October 11, Trump announced on social media an immediate “ENERGY CEASEFIRE” that he said both sides had accepted. Kyiv learned of it from the news. Within hours, Russia struck a power plant in Kharkiv and another facility in Kyiv, Al Jazeera reported. By Monday, Zelenskyy counted at least six Ukrainian energy facilities hit since the announcement. Pressed on the violations, Trump said he would have to look into it, because there had been violations “on both sides,” Al Jazeera reported.
The Kremlin has now dropped even the pretense. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the truce was never defined, so Russia cannot be accused of breaking it — hours after Russian strikes left at least 600,000 Ukrainians without power, according to the Kyiv Post. Meanwhile, Kyiv was told it would be held responsible if Russian refineries were struck during the “ceasefire.” A truce enforced against only one party is not a truce. It is a leash.
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IV. Paying Putin: The Diesel Deal
The pressure campaign has a source. On October 9, after what he called a highly successful call with Putin, Trump announced that Russia would supply diesel to American and global markets, and the Treasury moved to suspend fuel sanctions. CNN reported that the six-month suspension is a boon to a Russian economy straining under the war — and that just weeks after signing a law to punish buyers of Russian oil, Washington had become a customer itself.
That law is the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, named for the late senator and signed by Trump roughly three weeks before the deal. Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut called the move directly contrary to Congress’s intent, CNBC reported. Georgetown’s Peter Harrell said it proved the Graham bill was never going to force this administration to squeeze Moscow. Economists told The Hill the initial shipments would cover less than a day of U.S. diesel consumption. The deal costs Ukraine plenty and saves American families almost nothing.
Then Trump turned on the victim. On October 10, blaming Ukraine’s refinery strikes for record American diesel prices rather than his own war with Iran, he told reporters that Zelenskyy “never” makes a deal, Al Jazeera reported.
“I think it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president.”
— President Donald Trump, October 10, 2026
Zelenskyy’s reply, posted that day and reported by the AP, was that Russia had thanked Washington for lifting the diesel sanctions by dropping five glide bombs on apartment buildings in Zaporizhzhia.
Can a President Simply Waive a Law He Just Signed?
The Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations (Article I, Section 8). Sanctions statutes delegate some of that power back to the executive, but only on Congress’s terms. Three legal problems now confront the diesel deal:- The 2022 import ban. A bipartisan group of seven senators — four Republicans among them — wrote that Congress explicitly banned Russian energy imports in 2022 so that American dollars would not finance Putin’s war, Reuters reported.
- Required consultation. The same senators said the administration failed to consult Congress or submit any explanation of its decision, which they say the law requires. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said the deal may be illegal.
- The Graham Act’s purpose. The new law authorizes steep tariffs on top buyers of Russian crude or gas. Using a sanctions law as cover while easing sanctions turns congressional intent on its head. Twelve senators, six from each party, called the deal “a betrayal of the people of Ukraine” and urged Trump to enforce the law instead, NPR reported.
V. The Week in Sequence
VI. The Moscow Rumor — and Why It Spread
On Wednesday, MS NOW reported, citing two sources, that FBI Director Kash Patel had landed in Russia for meetings hosted by the FSB, Russia’s security service. The story raced across social media. It was wrong. MS NOW retracted it after Patel was photographed at a law enforcement roundtable in Lynchburg, Virginia, Yahoo News reported.
But the question worth asking is why so many people found it believable. The same report notes that lawmakers had already raised alarms about reports that Patel was expanding FBI cooperation with Russian and Chinese law enforcement, including intelligence sharing and personnel exchanges. When an administration spends a week threatening to blind an ally while treating the aggressor as a business partner, rumors of cozier ties with Russian intelligence stop sounding absurd. That is its own indictment.
VII. Puppet or Patsy? The Pattern Speaks
We cannot see inside Donald Trump’s mind, and we will not claim knowledge we do not have. What we can do is lay the documented decisions side by side. The question of whether Trump is a knowing instrument of the Kremlin or simply a man whom Putin has learned to flatter and steer matters less, in the end, than what the policy produces. And what it produces is this:
Russia’s revenue: up
Six months of suspended fuel sanctions — a boon to a war-strained economy that had just halted its own diesel exports, as CNN reported.
Ukraine’s strikes: pressured
Kyiv’s refinery strikes, which pressure Russia’s war economy, are the target of U.S. threats, per the Kyiv Independent.
Russia’s strikes: excused
Trump answered Russian attacks on the “truce” by citing violations on both sides, per Al Jazeera.
Ukraine’s leader: targeted
The American president called for Ukraine’s elected president to be replaced in the middle of a war, per Al Jazeera.
Ukraine’s defenses: degraded
Drone links slowed without notice, with Musk saying military Starlink answers to the Pentagon and Trump, per the AP.
Congress’s law: sidestepped
A sanctions statute signed weeks ago is used as cover for easing sanctions, per NPR.
This is not the first time. In March 2025, after the Oval Office confrontation with Zelenskyy, Trump paused intelligence sharing with Kyiv, which Ratcliffe confirmed at the time, CBS News reported. The method is familiar: squeeze the democracy, accommodate the dictator, call it peacemaking. Six Republican senators, including Mitch McConnell, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, signed the letter warning that the deal hands Putin more fuel to finance his war machine. When the president’s own party is saying it, the pattern is no longer a partisan claim.
VIII. Europe Arms — Without America
Europe is drawing its own conclusions. Poland expanded its air defense posture in September after what Warsaw called repeated Russian provocations, including a Russian helicopter crossing into Polish airspace from Kaliningrad, Al Jazeera reported. After drones breached Romanian and Polish skies this summer, NATO allies declared that Russia bears full responsibility and is showing an increasing tolerance for risk, Euronews reported.
Germany, which suspended conscription in 2011, now has a law in force since January that aims to grow its active forces to 260,000 and its reserves to 200,000, with a draft as a fallback if recruiting falls short, Newsweek reported. At this week’s Warsaw Security Forum, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned of a “real threat” from Russia and urged tougher sanctions, Breaking Defense reported — the opposite of the course Washington just chose.
For more than seven decades, the American promise to Europe was simple: deterrence works because the United States stands behind it. The phrase Americans grew up with — fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them here — rested on that promise. A Europe forced to prepare for a war against Russia without the United States is a Europe in which the risk of war rises, and in which America’s word is worth less everywhere, from the Baltic to the Taiwan Strait.
IX. The Bill Comes Due at Home
The administration’s defense of the diesel deal is that it helps American families. Those families are hurting — but not because of Ukraine. Consumer prices rose 3.7% over the past year in September, the last inflation report before the midterms, NBC News reported, with gasoline driving more than half of the monthly increase. Diesel averaged about $6.30 a gallon, up roughly 68% since the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran began in late February, according to CNBC. Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi called the inflation picture uncomfortably strong.
The squeeze extends well beyond the pump. Five million fewer people had Medicaid in June 2026 than a year earlier, and marketplace coverage losses are mounting after enhanced premium credits expired, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. And a record 22.7 million renter households — nearly half of all renters — are cost-burdened, Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies found. Blaming Kyiv for prices driven by the Iran war is not economic policy. It is a scapegoat.
X. Congress Has Left the Building
Congress left Washington at the start of October to campaign, The Washington Post reported, and it is not scheduled to return until a lame-duck session beginning November 9, per No Labels. The most consequential week for Ukraine in a year is unfolding with the legislative branch out of town.
Democrats have not been silent. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, Foreign Relations ranking member Jeanne Shaheen and Banking ranking member Elizabeth Warren called the deal a “total betrayal” of Ukraine and American security, in a joint statement. Blumenthal, Chris Coons, Dick Durbin, Jack Reed, Shaheen and Sheldon Whitehouse signed the bipartisan rescission letter. Some Republicans are moving too: Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) announced plans for a bill to stop Trump from unilaterally lifting Russian oil sanctions, Ukrainska Pravda reported.
But statements and letters are not law. With both chambers out of session, there can be no hearing on the Starlink throttle and no vote on the diesel waiver until November. Until Congress returns, the only branch acting on Ukraine policy is the one dismantling it.
XI. What You Can Do
The plain truth is that ordinary Americans cannot restore a satellite link or reopen an intelligence channel. What they can do is raise the political cost of abandoning an ally, and make sure the people who can act are forced to answer for it. Here is an honest assessment of the main options.
- Call your senators and representative — now, not in November
Lawmakers are out of Washington, but their offices are open and they are home campaigning. The Capitol switchboard is (202) 224-3121. Ask three specific things: Will you demand the diesel waiver be rescinded? Will you support legislation like Fitzpatrick’s to block unilateral sanctions relief? Will you demand a hearing on the Starlink restrictions and intelligence threats when Congress returns? - Put the question on the record at campaign events
Every member of the House and a third of the Senate is asking for your vote right now. Town halls, candidate forums and local debates are where politicians can be pinned down. Ask your candidate, publicly, whether they support enforcing the Graham Act. - Vote on November 3 — and help others do it
Check your registration, make a plan, and help a neighbor make one. The next Congress will decide whether sanctions are enforced and whether oversight happens. - Support Ukraine directly through verified channels
The Ukrainian government’s official fundraising platform, United24, funds air defense, drones, demining and rebuilding. - Protect your own household from the fallout
If you buy your own health coverage, review your options carefully during this fall’s open enrollment at HealthCare.gov rather than letting a plan auto-renew at a higher price. Track fuel and rent costs, and tell your representatives in writing how the Iran war’s price shock is affecting you.
Know what you are up against. The administration’s response to pressure this week has been to blame Ukraine’s president for American fuel prices, to insist a truce exists that the Kremlin itself says was never defined, and to deny cutting intelligence while its envoys threaten to do exactly that. The strategy is to make the story confusing. Your job is to keep it simple: enforce the law, stand by the ally, sanction the aggressor.
Editorial Conclusion
A president who slows an ally’s drones, lets its early warning fall silent, excuses the aggressor’s broken truce, pays the aggressor for fuel in defiance of a law he signed, and then demands the ally replace its elected leader has made a choice. Whether he made it knowingly or because Vladimir Putin has learned exactly how to play him, the result is the same: Russia is stronger, Ukraine is weaker, and Europe is preparing for a war it may have to fight without us.
Congress wrote the sanctions. Congress must enforce them — with hearings, with legislation, and with the power of the purse — the moment it returns. Until then, the American people must make the cost of abandonment unmistakable. The leader of the free world does not take orders from Moscow, and a republic that lets its president act as though he does will not stay free for long.
Sources & References
- Al Jazeera — Ukraine accuses Elon Musk’s SpaceX of throttling Starlink terminals
- Reuters via U.S. News — Ukraine says SpaceX limits Starlink operations, disrupting military
- AP via PBS NewsHour — Sudden Starlink limits sap Ukraine drone power as Kyiv fears U.S. intelligence squeeze
- AP via The Washington Times — Ukrainian drones lose some speed after SpaceX imposes restrictions on Starlink
- Militarnyi — U.S. restricts Starlink use on Ukrainian drones
- AP via ABC News — Ukraine received no intelligence from partners on incoming missile strike on Kyiv
- Kyiv Post — Zelensky says Ukraine received no warning from partners before ballistic strike
- Semafor — Trump mulls intelligence-sharing with Ukraine
- Kyiv Independent — US threatens to cut intel sharing, arms shipments to protect Russian oil refineries
- Ukrainska Pravda — Zelenskyy confirms US threatened to cut intelligence-sharing over refinery strikes
- The New Voice of Ukraine — Zelenskyy confirms Washington threatened to halt intelligence sharing
- Al Jazeera — Zelenskyy says Russia violated energy truce announced by Trump
- Al Jazeera — Trump insists energy ceasefire holds as Ukraine reports new Russian strikes
- Kyiv Post — Peskov: Russia not breaking Trump’s ‘energy truce’ because terms were never set
- CNN — Trump’s diesel deal with Putin drives a wedge through the Western alliance
- CNBC — Trump-Putin diesel deal contradicts Russia sanctions law, critics say
- NPR — Bipartisan group of senators call on Trump to rescind Russian diesel deal
- Reuters via U.S. News — Republicans, Democrats want Trump to reverse course on Russia diesel
- The Hill — Surprise Russia diesel deal spurned by growing number of GOP senators
- Senate Democrats — Schumer, Shaheen, Warren slam Trump’s diesel ‘deal’ with Putin
- Al Jazeera — Trump says Ukraine needs a new president who will agree to end the war
- AP via ITV News — Trump says Ukraine should get a new president as he blames Zelenskyy for diesel prices
- Yahoo News — Photos show Kash Patel at Virginia event after false report he’s in Russia
- CBS News — U.S. has halted sharing intelligence with Ukraine, CIA director says (March 2025)
- Al Jazeera — Poland boosts air defence after ‘Russian provocations’
- Euronews — NATO stands with Poland and Romania amid Russian airspace violations
- Newsweek — German military recruitment surges amid fears of NATO war
- Breaking Defense — At Warsaw Security Forum, Tusk raises alarm over ‘real threat’ from Russia
- NBC News — Inflation jumps to 3.7% as gas and diesel prices squeeze consumers
- CNBC — Here’s the inflation breakdown for September 2026
- Center on Budget and Policy Priorities — Health Coverage Tracker: millions losing coverage
- Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies — America’s Rental Housing 2026
- The Washington Post — Congress just left town until after the midterm elections
- No Labels — The 2026 lame-duck session: what Congress still has to pass
- Ukrainska Pravda — US Congress reminds Trump of Graham Act after his deal with Putin
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