As Russia tries to make Ukrainian cities unlivable with relentless bombing ahead of another war-torn winter, either the US president or the world’s richest person — or both — appear to be hindering Ukraine’s ability to defend itself. President Trump and SpaceX (SPCX) founder Elon Musk are reportedly involved in the apparent restriction in Ukraine
As Russia tries to make Ukrainian cities unlivable with relentless bombing ahead of another war-torn winter, either the US president or the world’s richest person — or both — appear to be hindering Ukraine’s ability to defend itself.
President Trump and SpaceX (SPCX) founder Elon Musk are reportedly involved in the apparent restriction in Ukraine of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite communications network and Starshield, its subscription service designed for military use.
“Elon Musk approached Donald Trump with the idea of slowing down Starlink in Ukraine,” The Telegraph reported on Friday, citing four sources familiar with the discussions, adding that Trump “agreed.”
Starlink, a global broadband internet service delivered from space, is a core part of SpaceX’s business. Starlink has more than 13 million subscribers worldwide, and SpaceX is now moving to challenge legacy wireless carriers.
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Ukraine uses both Starlink and Starshield for a variety of offensive and defensive purposes, including communication, logistics, live drone feeds, radar, targeting, and intercepting jet-powered Russian drones.
The Telegraph reported that after the Ukrainian capital endured a barrage of Russian jet-powered drone attacks with diminished capabilities for air defense, Musk became “alarmed about the possibility of adverse consumer reaction in Europe.”
On Wednesday, Ukraine’s former defense minister posted on X, tagging Musk, and asked for his support: “Removing Starshield’s speed limit entirely is now critical for Ukraine’s defense.”
Musk responded, asserting that limits on speed or usage of Starshield “are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS” and that Starlink “is limited to civilian or defensive activities.”
“He tweeted out that he was innocent and that it was the US administration that did it,” an unnamed source told The Telegraph. “The reality is that they were both in it.”
US President Donald Trump presents the National Medal of Science to Elon Musk during the “Golden Age of American Innovation Summit” in Washington, DC, on October 8, 2026. (Photo by Kent NISHIMURA / AFP via Getty Images) ·KENT NISHIMURA via Getty Images
On Friday, Trump told reporters that “it wasn’t me, and I don’t think it was Elon.”
On Sunday, speaking to NBC’s Meet the Press, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that it’s the “opinion of our generals, of our government, and of course [also my] opinion, that it was a message from [the] American government to limit the speed. And technically, SpaceX did it.”
Zelenskyy also openly wondered why the decision was made and said the service had not been restored to normal speed.
“Just give us back Starlink,” he said. “And of course, if they will not, we will survive and we will not stop to defend [Ukraine] even without it. But why? I can’t understand. For what? What are the reasons to limit us? Not to defend ourselves?”
Starlink is ‘the blood of our entire communication infrastructure’
Russia stealth-annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022. In recent years, as the war has dragged on, Ukraine’s military has become increasingly reliant on Starlink services.
“Starlink is indeed the blood of our entire communication infrastructure now,” Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s digital minister at the time, told the New York Times in 2023.
SpaceX unveiled Starshield in late 2022, and Ukraine began using the military-grade satellite network sometime thereafter. In late 2024, through a Pentagon contract, SpaceX expanded Starshield access from around 500 to roughly 3,000 Starlink terminals in Ukraine.
Starshield and Starlink share the same underlying satellite technology and network.
On Saturday, Zelenskyy claimed that Ukraine conducted tests that showed SpaceX services were operating normally in the EU but shut down at a certain speed over Ukrainian territory.
Zelenskyy said Ukrainian drones equipped with Starlink systems could not fly faster than 161 kph (about 100 miles per hour) in Ukraine because “exceeding this limit causes the Starlink connection to cut out completely, resulting in the loss of the drone.”
In EU territory, Zelenskyy said Starlink terminals “moved at speeds exceeding 180 kph (about 112 mph), and the Starlink systems worked perfectly. We have the relevant logs and evidence to prove this. The conclusion is clear: the restrictions are in effect within Ukraine but do not apply within the European Union.
“In other words,” he said, “this is a planned operation.”
The current situation in Ukraine.
This is not the first time Ukraine has experienced Starlink throttling, though it is the first since SpaceX became a public company this summer.
In 2022, as Ukraine retook territory from Russia, Musk reportedly ordered SpaceX engineers to cut some Starlink coverage in contested areas of Ukraine. In 2023, the company acknowledged efforts to throttle Starlink usage during the war.
“There are things that we can do to limit their ability to [leverage Starlink],” Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and COO, said at the time. “There are things that we can do, and have done.”
‘Nobody ordered that Starlink speed to be slowed down’
The stakes remain deadly as Russia continues to pummel civilian infrastructure across Ukraine.
“If the USG (anyone, Musk, WH or DoD) deliberately withheld a force protection measure that ended up killing Ukrainians,” former CIA official Marc Polymeropoulos posted on X, “and putting US personnel at Embassy Kyiv and American citizens in Ukraine at risk, that is a very big deal.”
A boy walks past a cafe with windows reinforced with sandbags to provide protection against shrapnel during attacks in Kyiv on October 18, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Sergei SUPINSKY / AFP via Getty Images) ·SERGEI SUPINSKY via Getty Images
On Saturday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that Starshield wasn’t available to Ukraine at all — which is at odds with Musk and the 2024 Pentagon contract — and that the US was not involved in the decision to throttle Starlink in Ukraine.
“We had nothing to do with it. Nobody ordered that Starlink speed to be slowed down. It sorta happened,” Rubio said.
Reuters national security reporter Graham Slattery, who questioned Rubio while traveling with the State Department team, noted that the exchange left him with more questions than answers.
An artilleryman of the Special Rifle Police Battalion of Zaporizhzhia region sets up Starlink satellite internet system, at a position, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, near the frontline in Donetsk region, Ukraine, October 16, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo ·Reuters / REUTERS
Parallel to the Starlink issue, Trump has recently made a series of decisions that benefit Russia while trying to push Ukraine toward a negotiated end to the war.
“I believe steps have been taken to convince Ukraine to capitulate,” Zelenskyy told Bloomberg in an interview published on Sunday, adding: “I don’t want to think that our American partners believe the war could be ended sooner at Ukraine’s expense. But that’s how it looks.”
On Oct. 9, Trump announced he’d struck a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to release millions of barrels of diesel fuel to global markets to alleviate elevated prices amid the US-Iran standoff around the Strait of Hormuz.
US President Donald Trump meets with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy during the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York City, US, September 22, 2026. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper/File Photo ·Reuters / REUTERS
“My decision on Russia is a very simple one,” Trump posted on Truth Social (DJT) on Sunday afternoon. “I am in the process of negotiating Peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine, and don’t want to do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table.”
Trump has also publicly soured on Zelenskyy.
“Zelenskyy is not a good guy for us to deal with,” Trump told Newsmax on Thursday. “He doesn’t want to settle. … No, I’m not a big fan of Zelenskyy.”
In the Truth Social post, Trump claimed that Zelenskyy “doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did.”
On Sunday morning, Zelenskyy stressed that it’s Trump who decides what happens next.
“And now the speed is limited, and of course technically it’s not a mistake. It’s limited because it’s a decision,” the Ukrainian president told NBC, adding: “If President Trump will decide tomorrow — or better, today — if he will personally decide to lift this decision, it will immediately work as it was before.”
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