Trump Reportedly Asked Musk to Ease Limits on Ukraine’s Starshield Service

President Trump called Elon Musk and asked him to lift restrictions on the military version of SpaceX’s satellite internet service in Ukraine, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal, after a slowdown that Ukrainian commanders said had crippled some of their drone operations.

The system, known as Starshield, is the government-grade counterpart to the Starlink network that Ukrainian troops rely on for battlefield communications. Ukrainian units began reporting problems in mid-October. According to the Journal’s account, drones lost their connection when flying faster than about 160 kilometers an hour, roughly 100 miles an hour, which made some attack and interceptor drones ineffective.

The Journal had earlier reported that Musk himself ordered the slowdown. The paper said Trump called him after that report appeared. According to the Journal, as summarized by the news site Meduza, American and Ukrainian officials then saw the system begin working more normally, an account that could not be independently confirmed.

Trump has declined to say whether he made the call. Asked about it by reporters, he said only that the bottom line was that Musk had put the service back, and he described his relationship with Musk as very good.

Ukrainian officials have been more guarded. They have said full speeds were not restored, and front-line drone commanders have described a service that works better than it did but still suffers frequent interruptions.

Who ordered the limits remains in dispute. Musk has said that speed and usage limits on the military service are decided by the United States military and ultimately by the president. The White House and Musk did not respond to requests for comment from The Washington Post.

The restrictions came at a sensitive moment. According to the Post, they followed Trump’s announcement of a diesel arrangement with Russia and his demand that Ukraine stop striking Russian oil refineries, a push tied to high energy prices before the midterm elections. The slowdown hampered Ukraine’s campaign of midrange strikes on Russian-held territory.

Members of Congress from both parties have demanded answers. Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, opened an inquiry and asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth who has the technical and legal authority to change the service. Senators Mark Kelly, Democrat of Arizona, and Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, led a letter signed by eight other lawmakers urging Hegseth to expand Ukraine’s contract so that preventable outages do not undercut American investment in Ukraine’s defense.

Vice President JD Vance offered the strongest case for the administration’s side, saying it was completely understandable that Musk, who runs a private company, would not want to be drawn into the war, and that the real question is American policy toward Ukraine and Russia.

The dispute unfolds as diplomacy resumes. Russia has agreed to restart three-way talks with Ukraine after the American envoy Steve Witkoff met President Vladimir Putin, and the Kremlin has said the talks are planned for the first half of November in Abu Dhabi.