Disputes over who bears responsibility for limiting Ukraine's access to the advanced tier of SpaceX's Starlink network have drawn the Trump administration, Kyiv officials, and Elon Musk into a public exchange of conflicting claims. Ukrainian officials have said that access restrictions placed on Starshield left a portion of the drone fleet Kyiv relies on for strikes beyond the front lines unable to function, while also weakening air defence systems tasked with intercepting Russian attacks.
On Thursday, Trump stated that the service had returned to full operational capacity, while a European official, speaking to a prominent broadcaster, indicated that normal functioning had not yet been restored. Despite the assertions made on Thursday that the service had returned to normal operation, a senior European official conveyed to a prominent broadcaster that the status of Starshield had not shifted in any way, with SpaceX identified as the entity technically responsible for the programme.
As the diplomatic dispute has continued, the number of civilian deaths in Ukraine has grown, and no clear answer has emerged about which party bears ultimate responsibility for the constraints placed on Kyiv's access to support. Relations between Washington and Kyiv had reached their most strained point since Russia began its full-scale military campaign nearly five years earlier, and it was against that backdrop that the restrictions took effect.
Trump argued that Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil-processing infrastructure were responsible for driving up gasoline costs for everyday Americans at the forecourt. A broadcast outlet characterised as reliable attributed the strain on global diesel supplies primarily to the armed hostilities between the United States and Israel on one side and Iran on the other, together with the oil export interruptions that rippled through Gulf shipping lanes in their wake.
When reporters asked about the Starshield changes on Friday, Trump distanced himself from any involvement, saying he did not believe the matter traced back to him or to Musk, the chief executive of SpaceX. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, appearing before reporters on Wednesday, told them that neither the president nor anyone operating within the administration had put forward any request to alter that system, and separately noted that decisions taken by Starlink, Starshield, and Elon Musk fell outside the president's purview.
SpaceX operates under private ownership. A spokesperson maintained that the president held no financial interest in the business and lacked any power to direct its operations — even as a broadcast outlet reported Thursday that the president had reached out to Musk about restoring the service, a conversation Trump later pointed to when telling reporters the platform was back online.
Trump declined to address questions about whether any conversation with Musk had taken place, though his remarks pointed toward the SpaceX chief as holding the final say over the service — noting simply that Musk had restored it. Senator John Cornyn of Texas told US outlets that he viewed Musk's actions as something the White House had, at minimum, permitted to proceed.
Musk has voiced backing for efforts to remove Zelenskyy from his position and put forward pointed criticism of the Ukrainian leader on a number of occasions. Musk had disputed those descriptions in an X post the week before, arguing that Starshield fell under government ownership and control and that any decisions over speed or access limitations belonged to the military and, ultimately, to the president — yet a television network reported on Tuesday that it was Musk who had ordered the slowdown of Starshield, with people familiar with the matter split over whether the action had been coordinated with Trump.
On Thursday, Vice President Vance offered public support for Musk's position, conveying that the tech entrepreneur had no wish to be drawn into a conflict between two state actors unless the United States government gave him clear direction, and that the matter was not, in Vance's view, one centred on Musk personally.
Zelenskyy had initially directed blame at SpaceX and the United States, stating on the Wednesday of the previous week that the decision would result in considerable loss of life among those affected. Speaking to reporters in the wake of the connectivity disruptions, Zelenskyy contended that EU member states operating Starshield terminals had faced no equivalent constraints — the curbs, in his account, had been applied to Ukraine exclusively — and characterised the pattern as evidence of an intentional, coordinated decision rather than any failure of a technical nature; he also attributed the reduction in Starshield operating speeds across Ukrainian territory to SpaceX, stating that the company had acted on instructions passed down from the US government.
Zelenskyy noted, ahead of those remarks, that Starshield connectivity for Ukraine had yet to be fully restored, and that he was anticipating discussions with Rubio within the next few days.
