Virgin Group founder Richard Branson stated that Donald Trump appeared to be cultivating an unusually close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, with the US midterm elections approaching that November. Writing on LinkedIn on a Thursday, Branson — 76 at the time — put forward the view that Trump gravitates toward authoritarian figures rather than standing behind democratic alliances, and argued that personal interests were taking precedence over the wider concerns of the United States and its partners.
Within the same post, Branson also raised the question of how allied nations could sustain trust in the administration given its repositioned stance toward Russia while an armed conflict remained ongoing. Those remarks were published as a public dispute between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was unfolding before a global audience.
On Thursday, a broadcast outlet reported that Ukraine's stockpile of Patriot air defense interceptors — supplied by the United States and used to counter Russian strikes — had been depleted. The disclosure came against the backdrop of ongoing tensions between Trump and Zelenskyy.
A diesel import agreement between the two countries took shape following a phone conversation between their respective leaders. The bilateral agreement between the United States and Russia took shape within days of petroleum-related trade penalties that Washington had placed on nations purchasing Russian oil exports.
The order to halt Starshield — a satellite internet service built for military use that has been operating in Ukraine through Elon Musk's Starlink programme — originated at the White House. Branson, writing on LinkedIn, contended that reduced access to both Starlink and Starshield, alongside what he characterised as a lack of advance warning about Russian missile launches, had played a part in civilian casualties in Ukraine. He also put forward the view that European leaders ought to look past their initial responses to recent actions by Trump and take on a more active role, framing the matter as one bound up with both the freedoms of European nations and the sovereignty of Ukraine.
Zelenskyy, speaking in a televised interview, voiced positions that aligned with those Branson had put forward. Trump had previously taken issue with Ukraine's targeting of Russian oil infrastructure, describing Zelenskyy in a post as someone holding power without the mandate of an election. Zelenskyy, for his part, indicated that halting those strikes was possible if Washington supplied Patriot air defense systems at a baseline level. A statement issued following the Starshield suspension noted that when Ukraine sought additional air defense coverage, the response from the US side took the form of reduced Starlink service.
