Bipartisan US senators prepare to block Trump nominees over Ukraine Starlink curbs

A bipartisan group of US senators is preparing to block confirmation of Donald Trump's federal nominees until the White House restores full Starlink functionality for the Ukrainian military, citing three people familiar with the matter.

The planned holds are expected to take effect during the lame-duck congressional session following the midterm elections, when Republican leaders intend to seek floor confirmations for dozens of executive and judicial nominees before the close of the current Congress.

Republican Representative Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania said he would seek the dismissal of federal officials responsible for disrupting Starlink services in Ukraine, alongside appropriations cuts to their agencies. Fitzpatrick, a former FBI supervisory special agent who worked on Russian counterintelligence matters in Kyiv, rejected the explanation that the technical restrictions were coincidental. "I personally don't believe in the coincidence theory," he said.

Senators Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, and Republican Thom Tillis of North Carolina organised a secure call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who told lawmakers that satellite services remained subject to operational limitations. In a joint statement, Blumenthal and Tillis said that "funding the Russian war machine" and cutting off Ukraine's satellite communications stand in the way of peace, and added that degrading its air defenses also obstructed peace efforts.

A Senate aide confirmed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee had previously approved the transfer of multiple tranches of air defence interceptors to Ukraine, though the aide did not provide further detail on the status of those transfers.