The White House ordered the U.S. Defense Department to slow down SpaceX's Starshield satellite service for Ukraine's military, according to a Reuters report citing two U.S. officials and a Western official — a move Kyiv says crippled drone operations and battlefield communications along the front line. Washington denies it.
What the report says
Reuters reported Thursday that instructions to throttle Starshield — the military-grade version of Elon Musk's Starlink — came from inside the White House, landing at the Defense Department as an order to limit the service Ukraine relies on for drone operations and military communications. A congressional source separately confirmed the account to the New York Post.
The impact was immediate. For one artillery unit fighting in the Donbas, reduced satellite service meant communications with headquarters were interrupted and internet speeds collapsed. "Immediately after the announcement that the connection with Starlink was deteriorating, it really did have a negative impact," said Ukrlan, a 28-year-old serving with the Special Rifle Police Battalion, speaking from his bunker near the front line. Ukrainian officials say the speed cap — reportedly set near 161 km/h — disrupted mid-range strikes, front-line logistics and air defense intercepts at a moment when Russian attacks on Kyiv continue.
Washington pushes back
President Donald Trump denied any involvement on Friday, telling reporters as he left for a campaign trip: "I didn't do that. No, we didn't do that at all. I heard about it from the news, the media. And we didn't slow it down at all."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio went further on Sunday, insisting "no one at the White House ordered the Starlink slowdown." Rubio drew a sharp distinction between the commercial Starlink service, which he said is regulated by SpaceX and "has been restored," and the military Starshield system, which he said Ukraine does not have access to. "Ukraine wants access to Starshield in order to conduct deep strikes inside Russia. They do not have access to it at this moment," Rubio said, calling the report "categorically false."
Musk himself muddied the waters, writing on 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 ultimately POTUS." Two senior U.S. officials told CNN the order did not come from Trump, and some officials have privately pointed at Musk. The Telegraph reported that Musk pitched a slowdown to Trump and the president approved — while an administration official called the episode "Pentagon freelancing."
Why it matters
Ukraine's war effort depends heavily on satellite connectivity. President Volodymyr Zelensky told EU leaders in Brussels on Friday that services had improved but were not fully restored, warning that civilian lives were at risk. Kyiv and its Western partners have decried the slowdown as handing Russia an advantage in a war now nearing its fifth year since the full-scale invasion.
Presidential adviser Serhii Beskrestnov suggested the disruption was linked to current U.S.-Ukraine tensions, writing that "it is clear that this action is not coincidental." Ukraine says it is working on backup communication channels and discussing the issue with SpaceX and the Pentagon.
The bottom line: two starkly different accounts — deliberate White House pressure versus a contract dispute — remain unresolved, with the Pentagon declining to comment and Kyiv's drone operators caught in the middle.
Watch: FRANCE 24 English on Musk pointing at the US government over the Starshield slowdown in Ukraine
Music in this post's reel: Kevin MacLeod - Long Road Ahead B (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0
Sources: Reuters, CNN, New York Post, Times Now News