Yuri Kobzar20:20, 18.10.26

Scott Bessent criticized Zelensky for wanting a Ukrainian victory.

Amid the deterioration of relations between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky , US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant, in an interview with NBC News,  evaded the question of whether Ukraine is an ally of the United States three times.

Thus, he stated that the US supports Ukraine in three key ways: by providing intelligence information, Starlink satellite communications, and allowing NATO to purchase American weapons for transfer to Ukraine.

“We provide three different things… to Ukraine, so that’s what you do for an ally. We don’t provide that to Russia,” Bessent said when asked for the second time whether the current administration considers Ukraine a U.S. ally.

He then accused Europe of insufficient support for Ukraine, stating in particular that the Europeans have enough Patriot systems but are not giving them to Kyiv despite Ukrainian requests.

When Bessent was asked a third time about the Ukraine-US alliance, he simply replied that he was not the Secretary of State (in the US, the Secretary of State is responsible for foreign policy) and not the president.

At the same time, Bessent criticized Zelensky’s public statements that the US had stopped intelligence sharing and restricted the work of Starlink.

“President Trump and [Secretary of State Marco] Rubio have categorically stated that no one in the Trump administration did this, and I think it is very reckless for President Zelensky to make such an accusation,” the US Treasury Secretary said.

Bessent also criticized Zelensky for wanting Ukraine to win, not just the end of the war as such.

“President Trump has made it clear that he wants to end this war; that it must end. And President Zelenskyy this morning presented a false binary that Ukraine must win. The war must end, and it will happen through some kind of negotiated settlement. And President Trump is working on that every day,” the American minister said.

(C)UNIAN 2026