Starlink & Ukraine: Elon did it

On Oct. 10, Donald Trump described his warning to Volodymyr Zelensky about attacks on Russian diesel refineries. “He better damn well stop,” the president said. Elon Musk replied to the White House video on X: “Zelensky has gone too far.” Four days later, on Oct. 14, Ukrainian drone operators were losing their satellite connections in flight. Ukraine’s military had received no advance warning of a restriction that forced units to cancel missions.

The order came from Musk himself, U.S. officials and people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal in its Oct. 20 exclusive.

A contractor’s chief executive appears to have throttled a military communications network the Pentagon pays for, during a war, while publicly assigning responsibility to the government. Ukrainian forces were still reporting limits on their strike drones and air defenses as Washington disputed who had authorized the change.

Who gave the order

Musk, the SpaceX founder and the world’s richest person, held multiple conversations with senior administration officials before the restriction. He wanted clarity about the president’s thinking and disliked his company being seen as profiting from the continuing war, people familiar with the matter told CBS News.

The service at issue is Starshield, SpaceX’s military communications offering, which uses the Starlink satellite network. The U.S. government pays to use Starshield and controls who can access it. The Defense Department has shared Starshield with Ukraine since 2024.

After the slowdown became public, SpaceX representatives called White House counterparts seeking a unified understanding and subsequent message that the company and administration had coordinated before Musk’s directive. Zelensky’s complaints had prompted an informal investigation inside the White House, where officials were trying to establish who had ordered the restriction.

The restrictions surprised some administration officials, who said neither Trump nor the Pentagon had specifically ordered limits intended to disrupt drone operations and battlefield communications. Ukrainian officials initially suspected either the president or Musk because the restriction followed their public criticism of Zelensky.

Musk’s public explanation placed the decision elsewhere. Replying to former Ukrainian defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov on Oct. 14, he wrote: “Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS.”

Fedorov had thanked Musk as connectivity began returning at lower speeds and asked for the remaining cap to be removed. Musk distinguished commercial Starlink, which SpaceX limits to civilian or defensive use, from Starshield, which he described as government controlled. He also replied “True” to a post saying Starshield was under U.S. government control and that the government had made the previous night’s call.

Musk and Trump spoke about the decision soon after it became public, while the president was campaigning last week. One person familiar with the matter said they had also discussed it beforehand. Some U.S. officials said Musk acted unilaterally and Trump had not specifically ordered retaliation against Ukraine.

Musk is the Republican Party’s biggest financial benefactor in this year’s midterm elections, having spent hundreds of millions of dollars for the party.

The accounts of who ordered the restriction rest on anonymous officials and people familiar with the matter; SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment, and neither the execution of Musk’s order nor Trump’s advance approval has been established.

What the cap does at the front

The restriction reported on Oct. 14 cut connectivity above about 160 km/h (100 mph). Above the threshold, a moving satellite terminal loses its data connection, so a drone carrying it loses its live link to the operator. Units reported failures below the announced threshold.

A Ukrainian official said the armed forces learned of the limits from customer support after filing a complaint about operational problems. SpaceX had given them no warning.

Mid-range strike drones equipped with Starshield cruise at that speed or faster. They attack Russian logistics in occupied Ukrainian territory, where maintaining a connection allows operators to see targets and adjust a mission in progress.

Ukraine’s 7th Rapid Reaction Corps, operating in the southeastern Huliaipole sector, reported interruptions lasting 10 to 20 seconds at 110 to 120 km/h (68 to 75 mph) on Oct. 14. The aircraft kept flying. Operators struggled to control them, and a drone unit canceled missions.

An officer commanding a medium-range strike unit in southeastern Ukraine said: “This is comparable to a nuclear strike against us. All operations are on hold. This will cost many of us our lives.” His unit flies American-made Hornet drones that strike targets up to 150 kilometers away. The restriction also affected arrangements in which a satellite-connected aircraft relayed communications to other drones.

By the evening of Oct. 14, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said connection quality had improved below the cap. It was negotiating stable service conditions and measures to prevent sudden restrictions. On Sunday, Zelensky said the system still had not been fully restored.

By Tuesday, Michael Kofman, a war expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, said the current connection was below 130 km/h. The remaining limits were hampering Ukrainian strikes and air defenses.

Interceptors carrying satellite terminals have to fly fast enough to catch their targets. Russia’s jet-powered Shahed variants travel well above the announced cap. Slowing a Ukrainian aircraft to preserve the connection also makes it easier for Russian defenses to hit.

Dimko Zhluktenko, a drone pilot and analyst in Ukraine’s armed forces, estimated losses from the Starshield degradation in the tens of millions of dollars during the disruption.

Mamuka Mamulashvili, commander of the Georgian Legion fighting in the Kramatorsk area, described problems extending beyond fast-moving aircraft. Connections repeatedly switched on and off across drone systems.

His operators adapted, but missions became harder to coordinate. “When you lose the connection between the operator and the drone, you can lose control of the situation in seconds.”

One drone maker’s account

Mike Orliuk, spokesman for Ukrainian drone maker Wild Hornets, offered a different account on Tuesday: the restrictions were not affecting its current operations.

The company makes the Sting interceptor, which it said on Oct. 13 had destroyed more than 15,000 Shaheds and Gerberas over the preceding year. Its interceptors have their own communications link. A stationary internet terminal connects the command center to the ground station.

“Our own communications system provides the basic connection to our interceptors,” Orliuk said. The remote-control system can use different internet providers, and its Starlink terminal does not have to travel at interception speed.

That arrangement has allowed Wild Hornets to keep operating. Orliuk said other interceptor designs carry terminals aboard the aircraft and cannot operate under the restriction.

His company is reconsidering projects, including launching interceptors from aerial platforms. It has not decided what to do with those plans and will test alternatives.

For the ground stations supporting its existing weapons, however, he said: “everything is operating normally with Starlink at the moment.”

The denials

The reporting on Musk’s directive conflicts with an earlier account of the order’s route. Reuters reported on Oct. 15, citing two U.S. officials and a Western official, that the order came from inside the White House and leaders at the Defense Department received a message that the Starshield service for the Ukrainian military needed to be slowed. Those officials did not identify the decision maker.

Trump denied ordering it. On Friday he said, “I don’t know if it was anybody, because it wasn’t me, and I don’t think it was Elon.” He said he didn’t “even think it was slowed down,” and “I think it’s probably functioning.” By Monday, he said: “I don’t know who it was, but I’d like to find out.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio called reports of White House involvement “categorically false.” He said nobody there had ordered internet speeds reduced to prevent particular drones from operating.

Rubio also described Starshield on Friday as “not at this moment available to Ukraine” and said it “has nothing to do with Ukraine.” On Monday, he acknowledged that “Ukraine has benefited from it.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that “we haven’t pulled anything back” and said: “There are terms of service that ultimately need to be complied to. And that’s where Starlink has the option to make those decisions, but nothing’s changed from our view.” “We haven’t made any directives or anything like that.”

Sen. Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican who recently visited Ukraine and met Zelensky, supported investigating while leaving open a technical explanation. “It may very well have been some sort of a technical glitch. I don’t know for sure or whose call it was.”

Ukrainian presidential defense technology adviser Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov said communications outages had been fixed, while the speed cap remained.

The refinery dispute

Trump announced a deal to buy Russian diesel on Oct. 9, as he sought to bring down fuel prices ahead of November’s midterm elections. He blamed Ukrainian refinery attacks for elevated prices. Most analysts said the Iran war had had a greater effect.

The administration eased restrictions on Russian diesel imports and subsequently waived sanctions against Russia. Trump also announced an energy ceasefire. Zelensky said Ukraine was willing to stop attacking energy infrastructure if Russia did the same, but Russian attacks continued.

Zelensky said Ukraine would resume striking refineries because Russia had not stopped hitting Ukrainian energy sites. Trump said refinery attacks would be a “disgrace” and described Zelensky as harder to deal with than Vladimir Putin.

The satellite service being restricted does not support those deep strikes on Russian refineries. Starlink does not operate inside Russia, and Ukrainian aircraft attacking the oil industry use other communications systems.

The affected mid-range aircraft operate over Ukraine and Russian-occupied territory. Their targets include ammunition depots and command centers behind the front. Interceptors use the connection to defend Ukrainian skies.

Congress asks

A bipartisan group of nine senators asked the Pentagon’s inspector general last week to investigate whether decisions by the department or its contractors contributed to the disruption. The group, led by New Hampshire Democrat Jeanne Shaheen and North Carolina Republican Thom Tillis, sought scrutiny of contractual oversight and continuity of service.

Ohio Republican Rep. Mike Turner, a House Armed Services Committee member, rejected Rubio’s explanation as insufficient. “People’s lives are at risk, and lives are lost over these things,” he said Sunday, calling for a congressional investigation.

Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick promised hearings and punitive budget cuts for any responsible agency or agency head. Tillis called the disruption either “an unacceptable error or lapse” or a conscious “decision to clear the field for a Russian attack.”

In Washington, Denys Sienik, Ukraine’s chargé d’affaires and its top diplomat there, was still seeking an answer on Tuesday.

Ukraine was “waiting for the official response from contacts with the Pentagon and SpaceX at the leaders level to understand what has happened, but also to understand whether the connection has been restored or will be restored,” he said.

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Marcus Schuler

San Francisco

Editor-in-Chief and founder of Implicator.ai. Former ARD correspondent and senior broadcast journalist with 10+ years covering tech. Writes daily briefings on policy and market developments. Based in San Francisco. E-mail: editor@implicator.ai