Ukraine says restrictions on satellite communications used by its military remain in place, limiting drones to about 160 kilometers per hour and disrupting interceptor missions. Officials and companies have offered sharply conflicting accounts of who ordered or proposed the limits.
A Reuters investigation cited two U.S. officials and a Western official who said an order to slow the SpaceX Starshield service came from inside the White House and was conveyed to Defense Department leaders. Those sources did not identify who made the decision or who implemented it. A senior U.S. official told Reuters that President Donald Trump made no such request.
Trump later denied that either he or Elon Musk was responsible and said the United States had not imposed any limit. Musk said Starshield is owned and controlled by the U.S. government and that speed or usage limits are decided by the U.S. military and, ultimately, the president.
A speed limit with battlefield consequences
The Associated Press reported that the cap cuts a terminal’s data connection when it moves faster than 160 kph, or 100 mph. Serhii Beskrestnov, a defense technology adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said the restriction forced drones to fly more slowly and disrupted front-line operations. Reuters reported that it complicated strike missions and logistics while slowing interceptor drones used against incoming Russian Shahed drones.
Starshield is the military service SpaceX developed for U.S. government and national-security customers, using the Starlink constellation as its backbone. AP reported that Ukraine relies on Starshield to control interceptor drones that chase faster incoming drones. Ukraine says commercial Starlink services used for communications and defensive operations were also affected.
Zelensky told reporters that satellite terminals kept working during tests in European Union countries at 180 kph, then disconnected at 161 kph after the vehicles crossed into Ukraine. He called that evidence of a planned restriction, Axios reported. SpaceX publicly described the problem as technical, according to Axios.
Competing accounts leave the decision unresolved
Axios reported that Ukrainian officials were hearing different explanations from SpaceX and the Trump administration. It also relayed a Telegraph report that Musk proposed throttling Starlink and Starshield to Trump. A source familiar with the discussion told Axios that Trump did not oppose the idea, while a White House official called the Telegraph account false.
