Starshield for Ukraine: Trump, Musk and Kyiv trade blame over restrictions

The Trump administration, Ukrainian officials and Elon Musk are locked in a dispute over restrictions on Ukraine’s access to Starshield, SpaceX’s military-grade version of Starlink.

Ukrainian officials say the limits have disabled many drones used to strike behind Russian front lines and hampered air-defence systems that intercept Russian attacks.

Donald Trump said on Thursday that the service was again operating at full speed. A European official cited by the Associated Press disputed that account, saying Starshield’s operation had not changed.

Dispute over responsibility

Trump initially denied involvement, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio said neither the president nor anyone in the US system had requested changes. Rubio also said Starlink and Starshield were private companies that the president did not run or direct.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had asked Musk to restore the service. Trump later said the system was “back”, but declined to say whether he had spoken with Musk, adding: “I guess the bottom line, he put it back.”

Republican Senator John Cornyn told US media he did not believe Musk would have acted without “at least the acquiescence of the White House”.

Musk and Kyiv offer competing accounts

Musk, a Trump ally who has criticised Volodymyr Zelenskyy, blamed the administration. He wrote on X that the systems were “owned and controlled by the US government” and that limits on speed or usage were decided by the US military and ultimately the president.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Musk ordered Starshield to be slowed. Its sources disagreed over whether he acted in coordination with Trump.

Vice-President JD Vance defended Musk, saying the billionaire did not want to become involved in a war between two states without the US government effectively directing him. Vance said the issue was fundamentally about US policy toward Ukraine and Russia.

Zelenskyy initially blamed SpaceX and the United States, warning that the restrictions would cause deaths. He said similar limits did not apply to Starshield terminals in European Union countries, and later said SpaceX technically carried out an instruction from the US government to reduce the service’s speed.

Full restoration remains disputed

Before Trump’s statement, Zelenskyy said Ukraine had not regained full Starshield speed and hoped to hold talks with Rubio in the following days. The dispute came as relations between Washington and Kyiv reached their lowest point since Russia’s full-scale invasion; the source also reports a rise in civilian casualties in Ukraine.