Musk Reportedly Asked Trump to Limit Starshield Support for Ukraine

Elon Musk reportedly approached President Donald Trump to slow satellite assistance to Ukraine, according to The Telegraph. The claim adds a new turn to a dispute over who restricted Ukrainian forces’ access to Starshield, SpaceX’s military service. The reported limit affected terminals moving above 160 kilometers per hour, a threshold that matters to fast-moving drones and vehicles.²

That 160-kilometer-per-hour limit followed reports this week that Ukrainian military terminals lost connectivity while moving, without warning. Ukrainian officials said the disruption affected drone interception, surveillance and battlefield coordination. Musk said the U.S. government controls Starshield and decides its limits. Reuters, citing two U.S. Officials and a Western official reported that an order to slow the service came from inside the White House, but did not identify who issued it.⁸ President Trump later said he did not believe he or Musk was responsible.¹

The White House order is disputed, and the effects reach beyond military operations. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the interruption was dangerous, while a Ukrainian official warned that Russia could take advantage by increasing attacks on civilian infrastructure.⁵ Starlink has become a key wartime link, helping forces coordinate where ground networks have been damaged. Europe has no ready replacement. Its planned Iris² satellite network is not expected to launch until 2029, and France-owned Eutelsat’s OneWeb has far fewer satellites and limited ability to support drone operations.³

That gap leaves Ukraine dependent on a service whose control is now at the heart of a U.S. political dispute. Democratic lawmakers on House committees have demanded that the Trump administration explain who ordered the restrictions and why.⁷ The European Union says it wants to include Ukraine in shared satellite capacity and add commercial services to its GOVSATCOM system early next year.³ But those steps cannot match Starlink in the short term.³ The administration’s response to Congress will be the next clear test of who made the call.