WASHINGTON — Russian President Vladimir Putin is “giving the middle finger” to President Trump by targeting Ukrainian power plants and civilian buildings in what appears to be a violation of the cease-fire, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) told The Post on Friday.
“President Trump said that he struck a deal to stop attacks on energy and infrastructure,” said Crenshaw, who traveled to Kyiv last week with a congressional delegation. “And Putin in the last few days is attacking infrastructure. So, in my opinion, President Trump should … absolutely punish him for that.”
The Russian president is “giving the middle finger to our president,” added Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL. “In my opinion, the president should not take that … Putin insulted you in the most personal way possible, and you have plenty of leverage to destroy him for it.”
That leverage, Crenshaw said, includes using sanctions approved by Congress to pressure Moscow back to the negotiating table and help end the nearly five-year war. He also urged granting Ukraine full access to Starlink, the satellite internet service, as well as Starshield, its US military-controlled network.
Crenshaw said Ukraine urgently needs satellite connectivity over Russia and Russian-occupied territory to help direct drone strikes against the Kremlin’s mobile ballistic missile launchers.
“Ukrainian drones … can hit these targets, but they can’t navigate to them,” he said. “They’ve hit stuff inside Russia, but it’s difficult. You really need Starlink to navigate to them.”
“Elon Musk just put out a statement, you know, he’s talking about Starshield. … That’s a newer, relatively new thing. It’s not proliferated. There’s not as many satellites as we need yet,” Crenshaw continued.
“Zelensky’s been very clear he will only … hit ballistic missiles, nothing else, no civilian infrastructure, nothing.”
In a statement posted on X Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his military uses Starlink only to intercept Russian drones, conduct “mid-range strikes against enemy military targets in our temporarily occupied territories,” and deliver food and supplies to the front lines.
The Texas Republican said SpaceX could provide Ukraine with Starlink coverage over Russian territory “tomorrow.” However, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has indicated that he is reluctant to do so without written approval from the government.
“Starlink is a commercial service owned and controlled by SpaceX,” Musk wrote on X Wednesday. “Usage of Starlink is limited to civilian or defensive activities and cannot be used for offensive military action, as doing so would be inappropriate for a commercial company.”
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“He wants top cover,” Crenshaw said of Musk, arguing that Ukraine’s request nevertheless “qualifies as a defensive action.”
Crenshaw met with Zelensky alongside Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and fellow committee member Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND). The meeting took place days before the cease-fire was announced Sunday and then quickly violated by Moscow, according to the congressman.
In the days that followed, Russia attacked power plants in Kyiv and other Ukrainian regions with hundreds of one-way attack drones. Moscow also carried out dozens of missile strikes against additional energy infrastructure.
“This is what happens when Russia sees the prospect of higher revenues for its war machine,” Zelensky wrote on X Monday, referring to Trump’s agreement with Moscow to export 300,000 metric tons of diesel to the United States and international markets.
Ukraine answered with strikes on Russian oil refineries, actions that apparently angered Trump and deepened tensions between the US president and Zelensky.
Trump has sharply criticized Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries, saying they have driven up energy prices.
“All he’s doing is making the world oil price higher. Well, I think that’s a disgrace,” Trump told Newsmax on Thursday.
Zelensky said US officials later threatened to suspend intelligence-sharing with Ukraine. At the same time, his country experienced interruptions to its Starshield service.
“Starshield speeds have been improved, at the moment,” Ukraine’s chargé d’affaires to the US, Denys Sienik, said Thursday. “We hope all will be resumed to the previous level.”
“Speed is critical for logistics, and for intercepting the jet-powered Shahed drones especially when Russia constantly uses them to attack our cities and commit war crimes and when Foreign Minister [Sergey] Lavrov openly states that Russia opposes a ceasefire,” explained Sienik.
Zelensky told reporters in Brussels Friday: “Has the speed been fully restored to what it was before? No. Is it being restored now? Yes.”
The White House, Pentagon and SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
