At a press briefing, Elon Musk — who heads SpaceX — attributed responsibility for restrictions on Ukrainian forces' use of the company's satellite internet network to President Trump, a position he put forward after Ukraine's president had linked troop losses to a sudden drop in connectivity.
The comment appeared in a post Musk published on X, offered as a direct reply to Mykhailo Fedorov — who previously held the post of Ukrainian Defence Minister — after Fedorov called on him to remove a speed cap on Starshield, the variant of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service built for government use. Fedorov, in a message expressing gratitude to Musk, wrote that lifting all data-throughput restrictions on Starshield had become a matter of pressing necessity for Ukraine's war effort.
In a written statement, Musk said that SpaceX holds ownership and operational control of Starlink as a commercial offering, while authority over any restrictions on speed or access rests with the US military and, at the highest level, the president. He noted that the platform is authorised only for civilian or protective purposes, with offensive military use falling outside the bounds of what a commercial operator should provide, and that connectivity through the service was being restored at velocities reaching 160 km/h.
A speed ceiling of 100 miles per hour placed on Starshield terminals in motion — applied overnight and without prior notice — affected several active operations, according to presidential adviser Serhii Beskrestnov, as the Kyiv Independent relayed. A Defence Ministry source, speaking to a news outlet, indicated that drone interception and mid-range strike tasks faced added difficulty as a result, alongside frontline logistics, reconnaissance, and signal relay functions.
The defence ministry noted that actual thresholds had fallen well below normal levels through most of the day, though the Kyiv Independent reported that service had steadied by evening while the restriction remained active.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told a broadcaster that drone interceptions dependent on Starlink connectivity had failed, resulting in fatalities, and noted in the same interview that Starshield systems operate under US government ownership and control. Zelenskyy told reporters that just four of the 40 ballistic missiles launched against Ukraine had been intercepted, and he raised the possibility that the air-defence service had been intentionally slowed, stating that those responsible were aware of what they had done.
Zelenskyy stated that the disruption had occurred at around 1 a.m. and that Starlink connectivity had been cut off, with the disruption attributed to decisions made by SpaceX and the United States. He stated that the allied party had exercised its prerogative, yet in doing so had placed his forces under considerable strain — withholding advance intelligence on ballistic missile launches before the attack, then cutting off Starlink connectivity at a key moment, given that drone interceptors relied on those satellite links to function, a failure he said contributed directly to the loss of life when too few incoming threats were brought down.
Zelenskyy told the interviewer he hoped the deceleration amounted to nothing more than an error, a news outlet reported. Beskrestnov, citing the Kyiv Independent, stated that the development bore the hallmarks of deliberate timing tied to the prevailing political climate rather than any accidental occurrence.
No statement from the White House on the restriction had been published at the time the Kyiv Independent filed its report.
The satellite service interruption followed by a few days Trump's public remarks directed at Zelenskyy regarding strikes on oil refineries — comments the White House distributed via X — in which Trump conveyed that while Ukraine retained latitude to conduct operations against Russia, targeting refinery infrastructure was a matter he viewed as carrying broader global consequences, before questioning whether that guidance had been followed. On 10 October, Trump stated that the individual in question needed to halt his actions, while Musk, posting a video clip that same day, wrote that Zelenskyy had crossed a line.
