Amid escalating tensions between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday dodged three times when asked whether Ukraine was an ally of the United States.
“We provide three different things … to Ukraine, so that’s what you do as an ally. We don’t provide them to Russia,” Bessent told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” the second time he was asked whether the United States considered Ukraine an ally.
Questioned a third time, the Treasury secretary simply replied: “I’m not the secretary of state. I’m not the president.”
Earlier, Bessent said the United States supports Ukraine in three main ways, including providing intelligence, supporting Starlink and allowing NATO to buy American weapons for resale to Ukraine.
He then accused Europe of not providing support to Ukraine, saying: “When President Zelensky asked for Patriots (missile systems), NATO – the European members of NATO – have a lot of Patriots. Why are they not willing to provide them with Patriots?”
Bessent’s comments came shortly after Zelensky appeared on the show and told “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker that it would be a “historic mistake” for the United States to side with Russia in the ongoing war.
The Ukrainian president, who has sometimes tense and sometimes friendly relations with the US president, said of Trump that “we want to trust him” and “I hope he changes his decisions.”
The current tension between U.S. and Ukrainian leaders comes after Trump said last weekend that Ukraine and Russia had agreed to an “energy ceasefire,” a move that surprised some European allies. For days, Zelensky stopped Ukrainian strikes against Russian energy infrastructure, but insisted that Russia was not respecting the same agreement.
A few days ago, the Ukrainian military resumed strikes against Russian oil refineries and accused the United States of withholding information about impending Russian strikes that the United States normally shares with Ukraine. Zelenskyy also accused tech mogul and Trump ally Elon Musk of limiting the country’s access to Starlink, which Ukraine uses to track drones and defend itself.
In his “Meet the Press” interview, Zelenskyy said Starlink’s speed limits interfered with Ukrainian forces’ ability to block drones and that he believed the decision to limit speed was a “message from the U.S. government.”
The Ukrainian president also told “Meet the Press” that intelligence sharing from the United States had been blocked for some time.
Trump denied that the United States had stopped sharing certain intelligence, and Starlink services subsequently resumed at normal speeds.
On Sunday, Bessent criticized Zelensky for publicly accusing the United States and Musk of limiting his resources in the war, saying, “President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have categorically stated that no one in the Trump administration has done this, and I think it is very reckless of President Zelensky to make such an accusation.” »
On Friday, the US president also announced that he would waive some sanctions against Russia recently approved by Congress in a bipartisan vote. Earlier this month, Trump said he would allow Russia to “immediately” begin selling hundreds of thousands of tons of diesel on the global market.
On Sunday, Bessent denied that Trump had lifted sanctions, instead telling “Meet the Press” that the president wanted a 60-day pause “so we can look at what’s going on.”
“The only thing that has been lifted is the diesel embargo,” he added.
The Treasury secretary also accused Zelensky of presenting a “false binary view” of the war in his previous interview.
“President Trump has made it clear that he wants to end this war, that it must stop. And President Zelensky this morning presented a false binary formula that Ukraine must win,” Bessent said. “The war must end, and that will happen through some sort of negotiated settlement. And President Trump is working on that every day.”
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