6 minWorld
Report: Musk Pitched Starlink Slowdown Before Blaming Trump
A Telegraph investigation alleges Elon Musk proposed throttling Ukraine's Starlink service before publicly blaming the Trump administration, as Kyiv says the speed limit crippled its drone defenses and service is now being restored.
Elon Musk privately proposed slowing Ukraine's military satellite service before publicly blaming the Trump administration for the move, according to a report by The Telegraph that has intensified scrutiny of how a critical battlefield capability was restricted during a period of heavy Russian strikes on Kyiv.
Four people familiar with the discussions told the British newspaper that the idea of throttling the system originated with the SpaceX chief executive. One source said President Donald Trump agreed to the proposal, after which the Pentagon slowed Starshield, the military-grade version of Musk's satellite network. The Telegraph said it approached SpaceX for comment, and the Pentagon has not offered a public explanation for the restriction.
The speed limit of roughly 160 kilometers per hour, about 100 miles per hour, left Ukraine's interceptor drones unable to catch Russian jet-powered drones and missiles traveling at twice that speed, according to the report. The restriction coincided with what one source described as a «night of carnage» in Kyiv, a period of deadly strikes that overwhelmed Ukrainian air defenses.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the consequences directly in an interview with British broadcaster Piers Morgan. «So people were killed because not enough destroying, not enough interceptors, including interceptors with Starlink, which didn't work, of course,» he said.
The public dispute over responsibility escalated after the slowdown became known. Former Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov wrote on X that Starlink connectivity at speeds of up to 160 km/h was being restored and that removing Starshield's speed limit entirely was now critical for Ukraine's defense, thanking Musk and expressing hope for continued support.
Musk replied by drawing a distinction between the two systems. «Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS. Starlink is a commercial service owned and controlled by SpaceX,» he wrote.
But a senior source told The Telegraph that Musk's public posture omitted his own role. «He tweeted out that he was innocent and that it was the US administration that did it. The reality is that they were both in it,» the source said. The same source said Musk grew worried about a consumer backlash in Europe after the night of carnage in Kyiv.
European reaction was swift. Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, whose country has purchased Starlink services from SpaceX for Ukraine, wrote to Musk on social media: «As your European customers, we are watching you.»
The order to slow the service came from inside the White House, two U.S. officials and a Western official told Reuters on Thursday. The move came as Trump pressed Kyiv to stop striking Russian oil refineries, the news agency reported. Defense Department leaders received a message that the service «needed to be slowed,» the officials said. Ukrainian officials who called the White House, State Department and Pentagon were told it was a White House decision, a senior Ukrainian official told Reuters.
A senior U.S. official denied presidential involvement. «No such request was ever made by the president,» the official told Reuters, though the White House did not answer whether other administration officials might have made it. Trump himself told reporters at the White House on Friday: «Well, I don't know if it was anybody, because it wasn't me, and I don't think it was Elon.» He added that the service was «probably functioning, from what I understand.»
Zelenskyy, who called the slowdown a «very dangerous and unpleasant surprise,» said Friday on the sidelines of a European Union summit in Brussels that service was coming back. «Our defence ministry is in touch and my partners, they told me that there were signals from the White House that they would return these capabilities. Have they returned to the previous speed limits? No. But is it coming back now? Yes,» he said, according to The Telegraph.
The episode has raised broader questions about the reliance of Ukraine's military on privately owned satellite infrastructure and about the chain of command when commercial and government-controlled systems intersect. Starshield, owned and controlled by the U.S. government, and Starlink, a commercial service operated by SpaceX, serve overlapping but legally distinct roles in Ukraine's defense. The reported speed restriction affected the military-grade Starshield system, which Ukraine uses to guide interceptor drones against Russian targets.
With service being restored gradually rather than fully, Ukrainian officials continue to press for the complete removal of the speed limit. The White House has not provided a detailed public account of the decision, and the Pentagon has remained silent on the matter.
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