Musk says Trump administration, not SpaceX, limited Starlink in Ukraine

Elon Musk said on Wednesday that restrictions on the speed of Starshield, the military version of his Starlink satellite network, were decided by the US military and "ultimately" the US president, not his company SpaceX. Ukrainian officials said the restrictions had disrupted drones used for attack missions and air defence after terminals moving at high speed lost connection, RFI reported.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine had gone a second night running without a warning from its partners of a Russian ballistic missile attack on Kyiv, relying on the US-operated Space-Based Infrared System for early warning. He said the restriction would "cost lives" by limiting Ukraine's ability to defend itself, in an interview cited by Vesti.bg.

Musk wrote on social media platform X that Starshield systems "are owned and controlled by the US government" and that any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and the president. He drew a distinction with the civilian Starlink network, saying it is owned by SpaceX and restricted to civilian or defensive use, not offensive military operations.

A senior White House official told Axios the administration had no role in the restrictions and that it planned to contact SpaceX to find out what had happened, according to Meduza. Ukraine's defence minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, said connectivity at speeds up to 160 km/h had been restored, and that fully removing the speed limit was critical for Ukraine's defence.

The dispute follows weeks of strain between Washington and Kyiv over US pressure on Ukraine to halt strikes on Russian oil refineries and a deal to ease sanctions on Russian diesel, Western media have reported. European allies have not been able to offer Ukraine an immediate alternative to Starlink or the US early-warning satellites, RFI reported.

European Defence Commissioner Andrius Kubilius said at a conference in Brussels that Europe remained "quite dependent" on American space capabilities and called for the continent to build its own systems, pointing to the EU's planned IRIS² satellite constellation, which is at least four years from being fully operational. Germany is separately developing its own military satellite network, RFI reported.