Zelensky accuses Trump of ‘betrayal’ as Musk points the finger at US President for satellite ‘sabotage’

DAILYMAIL.COM • 52m ago

By ANDREW JEHRING, CHIEF FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT and PATRICK HARRINGTON, UK NEWS REPORTER 00:24 15 Oct 2026, updated 01:06 15 Oct 2026

Volodymyr Zelensky last night accused Donald Trump of a betrayal over the withdrawal of crucial satellite data – as Elon Musk also blamed the President for the outage.

The Ukrainian president said it was a ‘pity that we are losing a strong partner’ and said ‘people will die’ as a consequence of the reduced defensive capabilities.

Zelensky’s made his comments during a trip to the UK, where he met the King and Prime Minister Andy Burnham for some much-needed support after a bruising few days.

Trump has in recent days demanded he quit as leader, signed a ‘treacherous’ deal with Vladimir Putin to buy Russian diesel, blamed Zelensky for spiralling energy prices, and surprised him with a fabricated ceasefire – which Russia has since obliterated.

Ukraine’s military yesterday revealed its access to the SpaceX satellite system had been ‘throttled’, grounding vital Ukrainian strikes on Russian military targets.

It said Elon Musk’s platform had imposed a ‘speed limit’ on its Starshield system – the military package offered by SpaceX – with Trump denying his administration had any involvement in the decision.

But Musk roundly refuted this, insisting Starshield was under the US president’s control – unlike Starlink, the commercial arm controlled by SpaceX.

He wrote: ‘Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately Potus [the US President].’

Speaking on Piers Morgan Uncensored, Zelensky agreed he felt ‘betrayed’ by Trump’s actions over the past few days, and warned the President: ‘This is not the right side of history.’

It comes as Vladimir Putin continues to blitz Ukraine, with 39 ballistic missiles striking Kharkiv and Kyiv overnight on Tuesday and into yesterday.

Horrifying images showed a woman crouching on the ground covered in blood after apartment buildings in the capital were torched, killing at least three and leaving dozens more injured.

Strikes on the city’s energy infrastructure also left 600,000 residents in darkness as power was cut.

The attacks on Ukraine were Moscow’s largest since Trump announced an ‘energy ceasefire’ with the Kremlin last week.

Zelensky said the onslaught was ‘entirely deliberate and demonstrative in its scale’.

‘Russia has never before shown such ostentatious disrespect toward the US,’ he added, saying 26 power facilities and four oil and gas terminals were damaged.

The US President’s poll ratings are tumbling over rising fuel costs largely caused by his disastrous war with Iran, but he is instead singling out Kyiv’s attacks on Russian oil refineries.

Last night, Zelensky said: ‘It is a pity that we are losing a strong partner. It is painful when President Trump chooses one side – not our side… I think his advisers are wrong. I don’t know who is pushing him… This is not the right side of history.’

Despite Zelensky pausing his own strikes on Russian oil refineries, Washington has not called out the Kremlin’s flagrant violation of the supposed truce.

Instead, Ukrainian drone pilots targeting logistics behind enemy lines suddenly found their Starshield feed cut off overnight on Tuesday.

After a complaint was made, SpaceX customer support informed the armed forces that Starshield was restricted to travelling at 100mph.

If they travel above that speed – which middle-strike drones must to evade Russian defences – the feed cuts and pilots get no live view. This has also limited Ukraine’s new interceptor drones which use Starlink to target Russian Shahed ‘suicide’ drones.

There were reports of the feeds cutting above 45mph, with some brigades claiming connections have been cut entirely. But Ukraine’s defence ministry said last night that lower restrictions had been removed, though the 100mph limit remained in place.

Serhii Beskrestnov, an adviser to Zelensky on defence technologies, said yesterday: ‘Our forces were not given notice of this limit, and this has resulted in the disruption of a number of missions.

‘This action is clearly not a coincidence and is related to the current political situation.’

Colonel Aleksandr Grom told the Daily Mail: ‘This is a critical restriction. Without any exaggeration, it means ten times more innocent people killed while sleeping in their homes.

Colonel Denis Gordienko said: ‘Trump is discrediting the entire democratic world order for the sake of his fleeting ambitions to be a ‘peacemaker’.

Trump has announced a deal with Putin to buy hundreds of thousands of tons of Russian diesel. When Zelensky criticised this as a ‘weak decision by strong partners’, the US leader declared it is ‘time for Ukraine to get a new president’.

Meanwhile, Zelensky hugged Andy Burnham as he arrived in Downing Street yesterday in a show of support from Britain in the face of US hostility.

The Ukrainian president said: ‘Our people, we survived and continue to do this because we have strong partners, and I’m very proud that we have one of the strongest partners in our history and it’s your people, Andy.’

Mr Burnham said recent days had been ‘dark and difficult’ for Ukraine.

He told Mr Zelensky: ‘You have seen the solidarity and the support you have got from everybody here in Britain. We are behind you and that will not change.’

Earlier, during PMQs, the Prime Minister had promised that the Ukrainian leader would not be ‘going away from Britain today empty handed’.

But he stopped shortof labelling Mr Trump’s behaviour a ‘shameful betrayal’ when invited to by Lib Dem MP Ed Davey, insisting his role was to ‘try and repair bridges so the support comes back’.

It came after King Charles earlier welcomed the Ukrainian President in the Chinese Dining Room of Buckingham Palace.

They then moved through to the King’s private audience room for discussions which lasted around 25 minutes.

Mr Zelensky wrote on X afterwards: ‘I thank His Majesty King Charles III for the audience.

‘It is important for me to have the opportunity to personally thank him for his unwavering support for Ukraine.

‘We appreciate all the assistance provided by the United Kingdom.’

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