Starshield: the order to “slow down” service to Ukraine came from the White House, Reuters reports – Trump: “It wasn’t me” – Zelensky: speeds not yet restored

The order to restrict SpaceX’s Starshield service, the military version of Starlink, for the Ukrainian army came from inside the White House. That is the claim of two American officials and a Western official familiar with the matter, according to a Reuters report. The leadership of the Pentagon, Starshield’s biggest customer, “received a message that the SpaceX Starshield service for the Ukrainian military had to be slowed down.” The sources did not specify who at the White House made the decision.

According to Ukrainian officials, military Starlink receivers stopped working when mounted on fast-moving objects, which hit the drones that use them for guidance. A person from Ukraine’s defence ministry said on Thursday that the receivers work again on the move, but only up to 160 kilometres per hour. The restriction made it harder to strike Russian forces and supply lines and slowed the interceptor drones used against Shaheds. The Ukrainians, who phoned officials at the White House, the State Department and the Pentagon, were told it was a “White House decision”.

A senior American official said that “the president never made such a request”, while the White House did not say whether other officials had. Donald Trump himself, leaving the White House on Friday, told reporters: “It wasn’t me, and I don’t think it was Elon,” adding that he is not sure such an order was ever given. Elon Musk had written on X on Wednesday that because the Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government, any speed or usage limit is decided by the American military or the president. A bipartisan group of senators called for an investigation, noting that the restrictions allegedly degraded Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against Russian drone and missile attacks on civilian infrastructure. After the strikes that followed, about 600,000 people in Ukraine were left without power.

Volodymyr Zelensky, after the summit in Brussels, said, according to the Guardian, that there had been “signals from the White House” that the capabilities would return. “Have they returned to the previous speed limits? No. But are they returning now? Yes,” he said, calling the restriction a “very dangerous and unpleasant surprise”.

The affair is part of Washington’s pressure to stop Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries, which Trump called a “disgrace”. Earlier in the week Poland’s foreign minister Radosław Sikorski had attacked Musk over the limits.