In brief
During a summit in Oslo, U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff’s hug of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky could not erase growing mistrust. President Trump has publicly denounced Zelensky and scaled back sanctions on Russia, stirring fears the U.S. is withdrawing support. Intelligence sharing, Patriot missile deliveries and Starlink satellite use have reportedly been curtailed, hampering Kyiv’s defence. The rift echoes past episodes, from a 2019 Zoom call to the 2020 impeachment, and leaves Ukrainian leaders uncertain about future American backing.
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff surrounded Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with a hug before talks in Norway’s capital, yet the gesture left as much scepticism as it did warmth. Mugging the screen of the conversation with an upbeat post, Zelensky thanked “our partners for their support”, but Ukraine’s high‑level officials continue to distrust Washington’s willingness to back the war effort.
Trump’s public rebuke fuels uncertainty
President Trump has repeatedly slammed Zelensky as “not a good guy for us to deal with” and dismissed the Ukrainian president’s insistence on a diesel‑oil deal with Russia as “wrong side of history”. Beyond rhetoric, Washington has taken concrete steps that could be interpreted as turning a blind eye: it waivered sanctions on Russia just before they were due to take effect and slowed the transfer of Patriot missiles through European intermediaries.
Intelligence sharing and satellite links on a knife‑edge
A trio of incidents – an apparent halt in early warning alerts, a pause in the delivery of U.S. strategic missiles, and a limited “throttling” of Starlink satellite service – have all been cited by Kyiv’s aides as signs that Washington is pulling back as pressure mounts to keep the U.S. neutral. The whistle‑blowing report that a “White House order” curtailed Starlink was denied by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who blamed a software glitch.
Echoes of the past
The paperclip of hostility dates back to a 2019 Zoom call where Trump asked Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden, a democracy candidate who would later defeat him. The sleaze‑laden exchange, followed by an embargo on $391m in military aid to Ukraine, set the stage for the first impeachment of a U.S. president. The current friction, while not identical, revisits the same distrust‑laden dynamo between Kyiv and Washington.
What lies ahead
As Witkoff prepares to discuss options in St. Petersburg, the balance of U.S. aid and policy shifts toward Russia continues to be a high‑stakes gamble. For Ukrainian leadership, each decision in Washington could spell the difference between a sustained war effort and the erosion of crucial support in a time of crisis.
