Starshield Row in Ukraine: Trump, Musk and Zelenskyy Point Fingers
Limits on Ukraine's access to SpaceX's military Starlink version, Starshield, have sparked mutual blame among the US government, Elon Musk and Kyiv. Ukrainian officials say the restrictions are disrupting drones and air defences.
A dispute has broken out between US President Donald Trump's administration, officials in Kyiv and SpaceX chief Elon Musk over who restricted Ukraine's access to Starshield, the military version of the Starlink satellite communications service. No side accepts responsibility for the change.
Ukrainian officials say the restrictions have left many of the drones Kyiv uses to strike targets behind the front lines inoperable, and have hampered air defence systems that stop Russian attacks. Civilian casualties in Ukraine have meanwhile risen sharply.
The Trump administration's position
The limits came as US–Ukraine relations hit their lowest point since Russia's full-scale invasion nearly five years ago. Trump has accused Ukraine of pushing up diesel costs for Americans through attacks on Russian oil refineries, although a BBC analysis found the US-Israel war on Iran and the resulting restrictions on Gulf oil exports have probably affected global diesel supplies more.
Last Friday Trump told reporters he did not know who was responsible, but that it was not him and, he believed, not Musk. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that neither the president nor anyone in the system had requested changes, while adding that decisions are made by a private company that the president cannot direct.
On Thursday the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had asked Musk to restore the service. Trump said the system was "back" and suggested Musk had put it back. Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas said he did not believe Musk would have acted without at least the White House's acquiescence.
Musk and Zelenskyy
Musk, one of the Republican Party's biggest donors, wrote on X that the systems are owned and controlled by the US government, and that any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and the president. The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Musk himself ordered the slowdown, with its sources split on whether this was coordinated with Trump. Vice-president JD Vance backed Musk.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy first blamed SpaceX and the United States, stressing that the limits apply only to Ukraine and not to EU countries. On Thursday a European official told the Associated Press that the service was not fully functioning. Zelenskyy hopes to speak with Rubio in the coming days.
