Nearly five years into its fight for national survival, Ukraine has entered a moment of intense vulnerability, under growing pressure not only from Russia but also now from the United States.
A double blow came overnight on Wednesday.
Ukraine said that its military, with no warning, had lost partial access to Starlink, a pillar of its battlefield communications. Kyiv relies on a militarized version of the wireless internet network paid for by the Pentagon. That led Ukrainian officials and analysts to surmise that the restrictions had come from Washington, as President Trump is locked in his latest feud with Ukraine’s leadership.
At the same time, Russia unleashed dozens of ballistic missiles in a broad attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure early Wednesday, cutting power to 600,000 people in the capital, Kyiv. It was a dark omen for a rapidly approaching winter in which Russia is gearing up to attempt a knockout punch against Ukraine as Kyiv runs low on lifesaving air defenses.
The Starlink development was interpreted in Ukraine as part of a Trump administration pressure campaign to limit Ukraine’s ability to fight. Mr. Trump is pushing Kyiv to stop attacking oil refineries so that Russia can pump more diesel onto global markets as high prices threaten the prospects of Mr. Trump’s Republican Party in the midterm elections.
“Clearly, this action cannot be a coincidence and is linked to the current political situation,” Serhiy Beskrestnov, a Ukrainian military expert who advises President Volodymyr Zelensky on weapons technologies, wrote on social media about the Starlink restrictions.
SpaceX, which operates Starlink, and its chief executive, Elon Musk, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Ukraine was stunned to discover the Starlink restrictions, which it said caused disruptions to several combat operations. The Ukrainian military uses the system in part to guide its ever-growing fleets of drones. The restrictions, Ukrainian officials said, tied Ukraine’s hands while leaving Russia free to wage war.
Perhaps nowhere was that imbalance clearer than in the Russian air assault overnight. The barrage included 39 ballistic missiles, Mr. Zelensky said. That would be the largest such salvo during the entire war, according to a New York Times data set based on Ukrainian Air Force figures.
Even as Russia pounds Ukraine day after day, leading to some of the highest civilian death tolls seen in years of war, Kyiv says it is abiding by Mr. Trump’s demand not to strike Russian oil refineries. Its campaign against refineries, which had led to fuel shortages across Russia, made Russians feel the war as never before.
Kyiv has said it is unfair that Russia is still attacking Ukraine’s power plants and substations. Mr. Zelensky has asserted that the strikes violate Mr. Trump’s self-declared energy cease-fire in Ukraine. (The Trump administration views the cease-fire as covering only strikes on oil refineries, even though Ukraine has none that are operational.)
Ukraine has set aside its most potent tool against Russia in part because it is worried that Mr. Trump could follow through on an apparent threat to stop providing intelligence that Kyiv needs to warn its people of incoming Russian strikes.
While Ukraine’s European partners have stepped in to patch Ukraine’s ballooning budget gaps as Russia batters the Ukrainian economy, Europe is not believed to be able to fully fill intelligence deficits if the United States were to pull back.
Ukrainian fears have been elevated over the past two days as Mr. Zelensky has reported that Ukraine did not receive early warnings about Russian missile strikes, though Mr. Trump said on Tuesday that intelligence was still being shared.
“As Trump requested, Ukraine has refrained in recent days from attacking Russian oil refineries and energy infrastructure more broadly,” Serhii Sternenko, a former Ukrainian defense ministry adviser, wrote in a social media post.
“But Trump was looking for any opportunity to undermine our defense capabilities, and he has done so despite our complying with his demands,” Mr. Sternenko added, referring to the restrictions affecting Starlink.
Ryan Mac contributed reporting.
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