Elon Musk wrote on Wednesday that it is “Time for Zelensky to go,” calling on Ukraine’s president to leave office as Kyiv accused Washington of helping Russia by withholding warnings of incoming missile strikes and degrading the Starlink service it uses to communicate. The SpaceX owner posted the remark on X after Volodymyr Zelensky had publicly urged him to restore Starlink service that Ukraine says has slowed.
Musk’s post said the killing in Ukraine continues, and he placed the blame for any disruption on the US government rather than on himself or his company. He drew a distinction between two systems. Starshield, the military-grade network Ukraine relies on for battlefield communications, is controlled by Washington, he said, while Starlink is the civilian constellation Ukraine also deploys but is not permitted to use for offensive operations. According to people familiar with the matter cited in earlier reporting, SpaceX allows Starlink inside Ukraine, including Russian-occupied areas such as Crimea, but blocks it inside Russia.
The exchange lands in the middle of a deeper fight over what Ukraine may do with American technology. Zelensky asked President Donald Trump in late July to press Musk into allowing Starlink-guided drones to hit Russian ballistic-missile launchers inside Russia, arguing that better targeting could destroy them before winter, when Moscow is expected to intensify attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure. That reporting also said Zelensky floated Starshield as a fallback, which Ukrainian officials conceded would cost more and be harder to integrate into their drone systems. Trump was later reported to have turned down the request, and Zelensky later said Musk viewed the proposal as an escalation.
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What has changed this week is the tone of the rupture with Washington. A senior official in Kyiv said the United States had in recent days threatened to stop passing on intelligence about Russian missile launches that Ukraine uses to thwart attacks. Trump has denied it. The Ukrainian accusation that the US failed to warn Kyiv before strikes came as missiles hit the capital again, and Russian bombardment has caused widespread power cuts there.
The immediate trigger for the political break was a diesel agreement. On Friday, Trump announced that he had spoken to Vladimir Putin and that Russia would release large volumes of diesel onto world markets: more than 300,000 tons immediately, another 500,000 tons in November, then a million tons shortly after, and a further three million tons later. The Treasury Department’s sanctions office, in a step The Eastern Updates has pieced together from the public record, issued a general license about two hours after Trump’s post, clearing the sale and delivery of Russian-origin diesel, including into the United States, into April 2027.
Zelensky called it a “weak decision,” and he said Ukrainian negotiators sent to the United States were used as cover while the deal was struck. US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were meeting the Ukrainian team and European diplomats in Miami at that moment. Asked whether he felt betrayed, Zelensky answered yes. A US official with direct knowledge told reporters that Trump acted after Zelensky ignored repeated requests to stop hitting Russian refineries, saying the Ukrainian leader was misreading the room and eroding goodwill with Washington.
On Saturday, Trump went further. He told reporters Ukraine should “get a new leader,” accusing Zelensky of blocking a deal with Moscow and of disobeying instructions not to strike Russian refineries. He argued that the attacks threaten to worsen fuel shortages linked to the US-Israeli war on Iran. Zelensky replied that the choice of Ukraine’s leader belongs to Ukrainians. Kyiv had previously offered to stop targeting refineries if Russia ended attacks on Ukraine’s power grid, but Trump reportedly wanted a halt without any such condition.
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Fuel prices are central to Trump’s political position. He faces midterm elections on November 3, with Republicans described as having dim prospects partly because of high energy costs, and he has sought to blame record US diesel prices on Ukraine’s refinery strikes rather than on the Iran war that has lifted energy prices worldwide. Ukraine’s drone campaign has cut Russia’s refining capacity enough that Moscow restricted diesel exports, according to the accounts reviewed.
European allies expressed dismay at the diesel arrangement, warning it would help finance the Kremlin’s war. Russian strikes killed at least 20 people in Ukraine on Saturday, and Zelensky said Russia marked the sanctions relief by dropping glide bombs on residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia.
SpaceX’s current rules still allow Starlink across Ukrainian territory but bar its use for strikes inside Russia.
