The clash follows Zelenskyy's Sunday interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," in which he said the US had restored intelligence sharing after withholding early warning data on Russian ballistic missile launches for three days. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also rejected that account on Sunday, saying "President Zelensky should be very careful about making statements like this that aren't true." While thanking Washington for unblocking the intelligence feed, Zelenskyy said US government ordered speed limits on SpaceX's Starlink and Starshield satellite services remain in place at a cap of 161 km per hour.
The dispute erupted after Russian missile and drone barrages earlier in the week knocked out Kyiv's three main combined heat and power plants and cut electricity to at least 600,000 people when ballistic missile alerts failed to arrive ahead of strikes. Ukrainian generals had previously been warned by US counterparts that intelligence sharing would be blocked unless Kyiv halted attacks on Russian energy infrastructure, prompting a three day Ukrainian pause that Zelenskyy ended on Oct. 15 when drones struck Rosneft's 340,000 BPD Ryazan oil refinery.