A war of words has erupted between the Trump administration, officials in Kyiv and Elon Musk over responsibility for restricting Ukraine’s access to the military version of SpaceX’s Starlink, known as Starshield. These restrictions have severely affected Ukraine’s military capabilities, rendering many of the drones Kyiv uses to strike behind front lines unusable and hampering air defence systems that stop Russian attacks. According to Ukrainian officials, this situation has led to a rise in civilian casualties. The question of who is ultimately responsible for restricting Kyiv’s access remains unanswered, while relations between the US and Ukraine have reached their lowest point since Russia’s full-scale invasion nearly five years ago.
Donald Trump said on Thursday that the Starshield service was fully operational again, a claim immediately denied by a European official who spoke to the Associated Press, stressing that the service was not functioning fully. Trump had initially denied any responsibility for the changes to Starshield, telling reporters last Friday: “I don’t know if it was someone, but it wasn’t me, and I don’t think it was Elon,” referring to Musk, the CEO of SpaceX. Trump’s cabinet backed him, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio stating on Wednesday: “What I can tell you with certainty is that neither the president of the United States nor anyone in our system ever asked for changes to be made to that system.” However, Rubio also made a comment that cast doubt on Musk, stressing that Starlink and Starshield are private companies and the president does not direct them.
Amid these denials, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that the American president had asked Musk to restore the service, a report that matched Trump’s later statement to reporters that the system had been “restored”. While Trump declined to comment on whether he had spoken with Musk, he appeared to suggest that the ultimate power to restrict the service rested with the SpaceX CEO. “I think at the end of the day, he restored it,” Trump said, referring to Musk. This narrative was challenged by John Cornyn, a Republican and US senator for Texas, who told American media he did not believe Musk would have acted “without at least the approval of the White House.”
Elon Musk, one of the largest donors to the Republican Party and an ally of Trump, has been a harsh critic of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and has supported calls for his replacement. Initially, Musk rushed to blame the Trump administration for the Starshield restrictions, writing on X last week that the systems were “owned and controlled by the US government” and that “any speed or usage limits are set by the US military and ultimately POTUS (President of the United States).” Despite these claims, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Musk himself had given the order to slow Starshield, although the newspaper’s sources were not certain whether this had been done in coordination with Trump. Vice President JD Vance defended Musk on Thursday, saying the billionaire “does not want to get in the middle of what is a war between two state actors without the US government directing him what to do,” suggesting the issue was fundamentally about America’s policy toward Ukraine and Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy initially attributed the restrictions to “SpaceX and the United States,” warning last Wednesday that this action would “cause many human losses… of course, people will die.” He stressed that there were no similar restrictions on Starshield terminals in European Union countries and that they applied only to Ukraine, implying that this was a “planned operation.” Over the weekend, Zelenskyy reiterated that Musk’s SpaceX was ultimately responsible for the sudden speed limitation on Starshield in Ukraine, clarifying that “It was a message from the American government to limit the speed… And technically, SpaceX did it.”
Despite Donald Trump’s insistence on Thursday that the service had resumed, a senior European official told the Associated Press that nothing had changed in how Starshield operates. Before Trump’s comments, Zelenskyy had also stated that Starshield’s full speed had not yet been restored for Ukraine, adding that he hoped for talks with Marco Rubio in the coming days. The ongoing dispute highlights the complex interplay of political, military and corporate interests in the conflict, with Ukraine suffering the consequences of the operational restrictions.
Taken from The Guardian