As Russia attempts to make Ukrainian cities unlivable with relentless bombing as another war-torn winter approaches, either the U.S. president or the world’s richest person — or both — appear to be hampering Ukraine’s ability to defend itself.
President Trump and SpaceX (SPCX) founder Elon Musk are allegedly involved in the apparent restriction in Ukraine of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite communications network and Starshield, its subscription service designed for military use.
“Elon Musk approached Donald Trump with the idea of slowing down Starlink in Ukraine,” the Telegraph reported Friday, citing four sources familiar with the discussions, adding that Trump “agreed.”
Starlink, a global high-speed Internet service delivered from space, is at the heart of SpaceX’s business. Starlink has more than 13 million subscribers worldwide, and SpaceX is now poised to challenge legacy wireless carriers.
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Ukraine uses Starlink and Starshield for a variety of offensive and defensive purposes, including communications, logistics, live drone feeds, radar, targeting, and interception of Russian jet drones.
The Telegraph reported that after the Ukrainian capital suffered a barrage of attacks from Russian jet drones with reduced air defense capabilities, Musk became “alarmed about the possibility of a consumer backlash in Europe.”
On Wednesday, Ukraine’s former defense minister posted on
Musk responded, saying that limits on speed or use of Starshield “are decided by the US military and ultimately by POTUS” and that Starlink “is limited to civilian or defensive activities.”
“He tweeted that he was innocent and that it was the US administration that did it,” an anonymous source told the Telegraph. “The reality is they were both involved.”
U.S. President Donald Trump presents the National Medal of Science to Elon Musk during the “Golden Age of American Innovation Summit” in Washington, DC, October 8, 2026. (Photo by Kent NISHIMURA/AFP via Getty Images) ·KENT NISHIMURA via Getty Images
On Friday, Trump told reporters that “it wasn’t me, and I don’t think it was Elon.”
Speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it was “the opinion of our generals, of our government, and of course (also mine), that this was a message from the American government to limit speed.” And technically, SpaceX did it. »
Zelensky also openly questioned why this decision was made and said that service had not been restored to normal speed.
“Just give us Starlink back,” he said. “And of course, if they don’t do it, we will survive and we will not stop defending (Ukraine), even without that. But why? I don’t understand. For what? What are the reasons to limit ourselves? To not defend ourselves?”
Starlink is “the lifeblood of our entire communications infrastructure”
Russia stealthily annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014 and launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022. In recent years, as the war has dragged on, Ukraine’s military has become increasingly dependent on Starlink services.
“Starlink is indeed the lifeblood of our entire communications infrastructure now,” Mykhailo Fedorov, then Ukraine’s digital minister, told the New York Times in 2023.
SpaceX unveiled Starshield in late 2022, and Ukraine began using the military-grade satellite network sometime afterward. In late 2024, through a contract with the Pentagon, SpaceX expanded access to Starshield from approximately 500 to approximately 3,000 Starlink terminals in Ukraine.
Starshield and Starlink share the same underlying satellite technology and network.
On Saturday, Zelensky claimed that Ukraine had conducted tests showing that SpaceX services worked normally in the EU but stopped at a certain speed on Ukrainian territory.
Zelenskyy said Ukrainian drones equipped with Starlink systems cannot fly faster than 161 km/h (about 100 miles per hour) in Ukraine because “exceeding this limit results in the Starlink connection being cut off completely, leading to the loss of the drone.”
On EU territory, Zelensky said Starlink terminals “move at speeds above 180 km/h (about 112 mph) and Starlink systems work perfectly.
“In other words,” he said, “this is a planned operation.”
The current situation in Ukraine.
This is not the first time Ukraine has experienced a Starlink throttling, although it is the first since SpaceX became a state-owned company this summer.
In 2022, as Ukraine retook territory from Russia, Musk reportedly ordered SpaceX engineers to remove some Starlink coverage in disputed areas of Ukraine. In 2023, the company acknowledged its efforts to limit Starlink’s use during war.
“There are things we can do to limit their ability to (operate Starlink),” Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and chief operating officer, said at the time. “There are things we can do that we have done.”
The EU is seeking to develop an alternative to Starlink to reduce its dependence on Elon Musk and the United States. The US ambassador to the EU on Sunday threatened “devastating” retaliation if the EU moves forward with a proposal to favor EU-made satellites over those like SpaceX.
“No one ordered Starlink’s speed to be slowed down”
The stakes remain deadly as Russia continues to strike civilian infrastructure across Ukraine.
“If the US government (anyone, Musk, WH or DoD) deliberately withheld a force protection measure that ended up killing Ukrainians,” former CIA official Marc Polymeropoulos said on
A boy walks past a cafe whose windows are reinforced with sandbags to provide protection against shrapnel during attacks in kyiv October 18, 2026, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Sergei SUPINSKY / AFP via Getty Images) ·SERGÉI SUPINSKI via Getty Images
On Saturday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that Starshield was not available in Ukraine at all – which is at odds with Musk and the 2024 Pentagon contract – and that the United States was not involved in the decision to limit Starlink in Ukraine.
“We had nothing to do with this. Nobody ordered Starlink’s speed to be slowed down. It just kind of happened,” Rubio said.
Reuters national security reporter Graham Slattery, who interviewed Rubio while traveling with the State Department team, noted that the exchange left him with more questions than answers.
A gunner of the special rifle police battalion of the Zaporizhzhia region installs the Starlink satellite internet system, at a location, amid the Russian attack on Ukraine, near the front line in Donetsk region, Ukraine October 16, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer/File photo ·Reuters / REUTERS
Along with the Starlink issue, Trump has recently made a series of decisions that benefit Russia while trying to push Ukraine toward a negotiated end to the war.
“I think steps have been taken to convince Ukraine to capitulate,” Zelenskyy told Bloomberg in an interview published Sunday, adding: “I don’t want to think that our American partners believe that the war could end sooner at Ukraine’s expense. But that’s what it looks like.”
On October 9, Trump announced that he had reached a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to make millions of barrels of diesel fuel available to global markets to ease high prices amid the U.S.-Iran standoff over the Strait of Hormuz.
On Friday evening, Trump signed an executive order waiving Russia-related sanctions that Congress passed last month.
Read more: The US economy faces 2 hot wars that are escalating at the wrong time for the White House
U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy during the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, U.S., September 22, 2026. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper/File Photo ·Reuters / REUTERS
“My decision on Russia is very simple,” Trump said Sunday afternoon on Truth Social (DJT). “I am negotiating peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine, and I do not want to do anything that would stupidly push Russia away from the negotiating table.”
Trump also publicly soured on Zelensky.
“Zelenskyy is not a good guy for us to deal with,” Trump told Newsmax on Thursday. “He doesn’t want to settle down. … No, I’m not a big fan of Zelensky.”
In the Truth Social post, Trump claimed that Zelensky “doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never has.”
On Sunday morning, Zelensky stressed that it is Trump who decides what happens next.
“And now the speed is limited, and of course, technically, it’s not a mistake. It’s limited because it’s a decision,” the Ukrainian president said on NBC, adding: “If President Trump decides tomorrow – or better, today – whether he personally decides to lift this decision, it will work immediately as before.”
Ben Werschkul reports contributed.
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