Zelensky: “US pressures surrender”… White House blamed for Starlink restrictions

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Ko Il-hwan = Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that the United States was pressuring his country to surrender to Russia.

President Zelensky said this in an interview with Bloomberg on the 18th (local time), saying that the recent actions of the Donald Trump administration are having an unfavorable effect on Ukraine.

He said that Starlink internet speed, the Ukrainian military's core communication network, is being intentionally limited, and the supply of Patriot interceptor missiles needed to defend against Russian ballistic missiles is also being delayed.

When asked who was behind the Starlink speed limit, President Zelensky answered "the authorities and the White House," based on anonymous sources.

He also claimed that the United States is currently supplying only 12 Patriot interceptor missiles to Ukraine per month, which is only about a quarter of the supply rate during the Joe Biden administration.

“We paid for weapons, including anti-ballistic missile weapons,” President Zelensky said. “This is not a technical problem.”

“I believe steps have been taken to induce Ukraine to surrender,” he claimed.

I don't want to believe that the United States is trying to end the war early at the expense of Ukraine, but it seems that way.

President Zelenskyy introduced that in relation to the United States' request to stop attacking Russian oil refineries, it proposed a plan to link it with the additional supply of Patriot air defense missiles.

However, he again took aim at the Trump administration, saying that the United States only wants to stop Ukraine's attacks on Russian oil refineries.

President Zelensky predicted that there is a possibility that relations between the two countries will improve after the U.S. midterm elections.

“Politics is very aggressive during election periods,” he said. “These are painful times, but I think things will become calmer once the elections are over.”

Explaining efforts to restore relations with the United States, President Zelensky emphasized that "the problem must be resolved before a tsunami-level crisis occurs in Ukraine," and that "much bigger issues are at stake than the transit agreement."