Elon Musk reportedly ordered a slowdown of a military-grade Starlink service that Ukraine uses to defend against Russian missile attacks, according to a Wall Street Journal report published Tuesday. The Starlink Ukraine slowdown has drawn attention from Washington and Kyiv, though the central claim rests on the Journal’s reporting and anonymous sources.
According to the WSJ report, citing US officials, Musk capped the speeds at which Ukrainian hardware could stay connected to Starlink last week. The Journal reported that the cap rendered some offensive and interceptor drones virtually useless. Those drone claims come only from the WSJ, as relayed by DW, and no independent confirmation appears in the sources available.
Ukraine uses Starlink for battlefield communications and drone operations. Restricting the service hampered attack and air defense drone missions against Russia, according to Rappler.
The WSJ also reported, citing two people, that Musk and US President Donald Trump discussed the Starlink decision in a call soon after the slowdown became public. One person cited by DW said Musk consulted several officials, including Trump, before the cap. The named sources and documents behind the Journal’s account are not available.
Reuters reported that two US officials and a Western official briefed on the matter said the decision ultimately came from the White House. Reuters could not immediately verify the WSJ report, according to Rappler. The sources differ on who made the call, and the accounts have not been reconciled.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that decisions on Ukraine’s Starlink access are up to SpaceX and Musk, not the White House. Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that Starlink’s terms of service are the basis for its decisions, which portrays the cutoff as a commercial matter. Hegseth said Washington had not pulled back Ukraine’s ability to access Starlink, according to Rappler.
Rubio has also given differing accounts. He earlier said no one ordered the slowdown, then said he was not aware of advance knowledge of it. He suggested Ukraine never had access to Starshield, and said Starlink speed was restored. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy says both Starlink and Starshield in Ukraine were disrupted, and on Tuesday said the situation "needs to be restored," according to Rappler. The restoration date and the extent of the slowdown are not stated in the sources.
Trump said last week that he did not think he or Musk was responsible for Ukraine losing Starlink access. Musk said limits on speed or use were decided by the US military or the president. Relations between Zelenskyy and Washington have reportedly sunk to new lows after Trump announced a deal to buy Russian diesel and waived new sanctions on Moscow. Both Musk and Trump have expressed anger at Ukraine for attacking Russian diesel refineries, which Trump blames for high energy prices, according to DW.
Musk and SpaceX did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. Rappler and DW report the White House also did not respond.
US envoy Steve Witkoff is set to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, after talks with Zelenskyy in Norway, which a US official called constructive, according to DW. Rubio is on a trip to India.
Sources
This article was written with AI assistance from the published reporting listed above. It is part of the World Brief daily news podcast.