Republican senators are escalating their clash with President Donald Trump and reaching for one of their most powerful pieces of leverage.
Senators from both parties have warned top White House officials that they will hold up Trump’s pending nominees until his administration restores the satellite communications Ukraine’s military relies on, The New York Times reported Friday, citing three people familiar with the discussions.
The threat has not yet been made public, according to the Times. It would land during the lame-duck session following the midterm elections, when Republicans are expected to push dozens of Trump’s nominees through before the current Congress expires.
The standoff follows reports from Ukrainian officials last week that their ability to fly military drones had been restricted, along with suspicions that someone in the Trump administration may have deliberately throttled Starshield, the SpaceX-run network that keeps those drones connected. It remains unclear whether anyone took such a step, or who. The Times reported that Trump phoned Elon Musk last week and asked him to restore Ukraine’s full access.
The service cut out abruptly, sending Ukrainian drones crashing to the ground mid-mission. Ukrainian commanders and officials told the Times the speed limits were still in place Friday, with some troops struggling to connect even at slower speeds. Kyiv has yet to get an explanation from Washington, officials said.
The disruptions have also put Americans at risk. A U.S. official who visited Kyiv this month told the Times that attack warnings arrived so late that American diplomatic personnel had to shelter in hallways instead of bunkers.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) organized a bipartisan call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky this week, during which he told them key satellite services remained degraded, including on systems traveling faster than 100 miles per hour, hampering Ukraine’s ability to intercept Russian drones.
“Funding Russia’s war machine, disabling Ukraine’s satellite communications, and crippling its air defense are all impediments to peace,” the two senators said in a joint statement.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), a former FBI agent who worked on Russian counterintelligence in Kyiv, went further, threatening to push for the firing of the officials responsible and to cut their agencies’ budgets. Fitzpatrick told the Times he’s “personally not buying the coincidence argument.”
Even Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), who chairs the Armed Services Committee, has been publicly leaning on Trump to take Zelensky up on an offer to halt strikes on Russian oil infrastructure in exchange for U.S. help targeting Russian missile launches.
“President Trump can lower prices at the pump today by simply agreeing to this deal!” Wicker posted.