KYIV — Ukraine’s drone crews learned about a new satellite speed limit from a customer-support line. On Wednesday Elon Musk told them who set it: not SpaceX, he said, but “the US military and ultimately POTUS.”
The military version of Starlink, called Starshield, was restricted overnight on platforms moving at 100 mph or faster, according to Serhii Beskrestnov, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on defense technology. Ukraine got no warning, he said, and “a number of missions” failed. The 7th Rapid Reaction Corps, an air assault unit fighting in the Zaporizhzhia region, said its drones kept flying but the interruptions “made them harder to control.” Starshield is built and run by SpaceX.
The Starlink Ukraine speed limit now comes down to one question, which is who owns the decision. Musk wrote that any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately the president, and that the satellites are government-controlled. He did not say whether Donald Trump, War Secretary Pete Hegseth or another official approved this one, or why, Fox News reported.
Some Ukrainian officials told NBC News the timing could not be a coincidence, given that Musk is a close Trump ally and that Trump has been pressing Kyiv to stop striking Russian energy targets. Kyiv and its backers have worried Washington could cut off battlefield support to force concessions, NBC reported. Trump says the US is still sharing intelligence.
Mykhailo Fedorov, whom Fox News calls Ukraine’s former defense minister, wrote on X that service at speeds up to 160 km/h was being restored, thanked Musk, and said removing the limit entirely was now “critical for Ukraine’s defense.” Zelenskyy’s spokesperson told NBC the limits were still in place late Wednesday. Fox described Fedorov’s post as covering speeds below the threshold, so the two accounts may not conflict.
Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, asked SpaceX on X to confirm that degrading Ukraine’s defenses was not its intent, writing that doing so on purpose “might be construed as aiding and abetting a mass murderer.” Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, asked Musk whether he was “playing politics with your products again.” Poland pays for more than 2,900 Starlink terminals operating in Ukraine, Fox reported.
The Pentagon’s contract with SpaceX gives it a direct role in Starshield, Fox noted, but a contract does not settle who has authority over a specific restriction. Ukraine’s service is contracted through the US government until May 15, 2027, according to a source Fox cited, and Kyiv told SpaceX the speed limit had never applied to its terminals before. The White House, SpaceX and Starlink did not immediately respond to NBC. Nobody has yet said on the record who ordered this one in the middle of the Russia-Ukraine war.
