Finance Minister Scott Bessent of the United States failed to give a clear answer three times during an interview with U.S. broadcaster NBC News when asked whether the Donald Trump administration considers Ukraine an ally of the United States. Instead, he listed forms of U.S. support and explained the limits of his authority.
The journalist returned to the question against the backdrop of growing tensions between Presidents Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Rather than directly define the relationship between Washington and Kyiv, Bessent named three areas of assistance that the United States continues to provide to Ukraine:
- sharing intelligence;
- providing Starlink satellite connectivity;
- allowing NATO countries to buy U.S. weapons and then transfer them to Ukraine.
“We provide Ukraine with three different kinds of assistance, and that’s what you do for an ally. We don’t provide that to Russia,” Scott Bessent said when the question about the alliance was asked for the second time.
After the third question, the minister said that he was neither the secretary of state nor the president. He explained that he was not authorized to define the country’s foreign policy position.
At the same time, Bessent criticized European countries for providing insufficient military support to Kyiv. He claimed they had enough Patriot air defense systems but were not transferring them to Ukraine, despite receiving requests to do so.
The interview also touched on Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s claims that Washington had temporarily stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine and restricted its access to Starlink satellite connectivity. Rejecting these accusations, the minister cited the U.S. president and Secretary of State Marco Rubio:
“President Trump and Rubio have categorically stated that no one in the Trump administration did that, and I think President Zelenskyy is being very reckless in making that accusation,” Bessent said.
The minister made another critical assessment of the Ukrainian president’s approach to ending the war. In contrast to the argument that Ukraine needs to win, he emphasized Washington’s priority: ending the fighting through negotiations.
“President Trump has made it clear that he wants to end this war. It has to end. And President Zelenskyy put forward a false binary this morning, according to which Ukraine has to win. The war has to end, and it will end through some kind of negotiated settlement. And President Trump is working on that every day,” Scott Bessent said.
We wrote earlier:
- Easing sanctions pleases Putin: Zelenskyy criticized Trump’s decision
- Pentagon receives White House order to restrict Starshield for Ukraine’s Armed Forces — Reuters
- Zelenskyy asks Musk to restore Starlink: outages could cost lives
- Restrictions on military Starlink disrupted important Defense Forces missions
- “Don’t bang on the table!” — Zelenskyy put the U.S. Treasury secretary in his place in Kyiv
