President Donald Trump called Elon Musk on Wednesday and asked him to lift speed restrictions on Ukraine’s military-grade Starlink service, according to U.S. officials cited by The Wall Street Journal.
The system began operating more normally on Thursday, shortly after the conversation, U.S. and Ukrainian officials told the Journal. Trump confirmed on Thursday that Musk had restored access but declined to say whether he had personally intervened. “I don’t want to comment on it, whether I called or whether somebody else called,” Trump told reporters. “The bottom line, he put it back.”
The restrictions had capped connection speeds for Ukrainian hardware, causing terminals to lose connectivity when devices exceeded 160 km/h. Ukrainian officials said the slowdown disrupted drone operations, including interceptor and strike missions against Russian targets. Some Ukrainian officials later said the service had improved but was not yet fully restored.
Musk had previously suggested that the U.S. government controlled Starshield, the military version of Starlink, and that any limits were set by the Pentagon and ultimately the president. The Pentagon and Trump administration officials denied issuing any such directives. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said decisions about Starlink access were governed by SpaceX’s commercial contracts.
