Two incompatible accounts of who slowed Ukraine’s military satellite service are now on the record at the same time. The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing US officials and people familiar with the matter, that Elon Musk last week ordered the slowdown of Starshield, the military grade version of SpaceX’s Starlink service that Ukraine relies on for battlefield communications and drone operations. Restricting the service hampered Ukraine’s attack and air defence drone missions against Russia, the Journal reported.
Reuters, carrying the Journal’s report, added two qualifications that define the story’s evidentiary status. It could not immediately verify the report, and it had itself reported exclusively that the order to limit the satellite system came from inside the White House. Musk, SpaceX and the White House did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
The denials are also on the record, and they do not line up with each other. President Trump said last week he did not think either he or Musk was responsible for Ukraine losing Starlink access. Musk has said any limits on speed or Starship use were decided by the US military or the president. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that Washington had no prior knowledge of the slowdown and that the president has nothing to do with decisions made by Starlink, Starshield or Mr Musk. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday that Washington had not pulled back Ukraine’s ability to access the network and signalled the problem lay in terms of service Kyiv needed to comply with.
What is not disputed is the operational fact underneath the argument, which this site has covered since October 14: speed caps on the service inside Ukraine degraded missions, and Kyiv wants full function restored. President Zelenskyy, in Oslo on Tuesday in a bid to repair relations with Washington, said he had discussed the situation with Starlink and Starshield, which needs to be restored, with Rubio. The Journal also reported that Trump and Musk discussed the Starlink decision in a call soon after the slowdown became public, and had discussed the matter before the throttling decision as well. Until one of the principals produces a document, the order’s origin remains a reported and contested claim, and it is presented as such.