Bessent described Zelenskyy’s comments on US restricting Starlink as "highly irresponsible"

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has described Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s comments regarding US restrictions on the operation of Starlink and Starshield as "highly irresponsible".

He said this in an interview with NBC News on Sunday, 18 October, according to Censor.NET.

Bessent’s response to the statements regarding Starlink

It is worth noting that the conversation with Bessent took place immediately after the NBC News interview with Zelenskyy, during which, amongst other things, the issues of intelligence and Starlink were discussed.

The journalist told Bessent that, in a conversation with her, Zelenskyy had stated that the US government had signalled an intention to restrict Starlink and Starshield, and asked him to comment on this in light of Donald Trump’s contradictory statements.

"President Trump and Secretary of State Rubio have stated that no one in the Trump administration did this. And I consider it highly irresponsible of President Zelenskyy to make such accusations," said the US minister.

When asked to explain why the network’s performance had deteriorated, Bessent said he "knew nothing about it".

"You see, once again, I know nothing about this. But we have made our position very clear. And, you know, President Zelenskyy should be very careful with such statements, which do not correspond to reality," added the US Treasury Secretary.

Restrictions on Starlink’s operations in Ukraine

On 14 October, Serhii Sternenko, a volunteer and former adviser to the Minister of Defence, stated that during the night SpaceX had restricted the operation of Starlink terminals for the Ukrainian military. As a result, he said, "a number of important missions were disrupted". The restrictions were imposed on data transmission depending on the speed of the UAVs using Starlink.
This information was subsequently confirmed by Serhii Beskrestnov (Flash). According to him, the restrictions may also make it more difficult to use drones designed to intercept jet-powered suicide drones.
Units of the 7th Corps of the Airborne Forces also reported that they had begun to notice problems with the Starlink connection in the Huliaipole sector last night. This concerns the Starshield package – the so-called military package, which previously had no data transfer speed restrictions.
Later, former Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov stated that the network was being restored to speeds of up to 160 km/h.
At the same time, Elon Musk stated that he is not the one who sets the restrictions on Starshield, which Ukraine is using. This system is controlled by the US government, not SpaceX.
According to Reuters, the n order imposing restrictions on Starshield for Ukraine was issued by the White House.
On 16 October, US President Trump stated that Washington was not involved in the slowdown of the Starlink (Starshield) satellite communications ‘military package’ for the Ukrainian armed forces.