Report says Musk ordered Starlink slowdown affecting Ukraine as officials dispute responsibility

Elon Musk ordered a slowdown of a military-grade version of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite service used by Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal reported, according to the South China Morning Post. The report cited US officials and people familiar with the matter, while Reuters said it could not independently verify the account. Ukraine relies on Starlink for battlefield communications and drone operations.

The South China Morning Post said restricting the service hampered Ukrainian attack and air-defence drone missions against Russia, but the supplied reports do not quantify the disruption or identify the locations and units affected. The report says Musk and US President Donald Trump discussed the decision in a call soon after the slowdown became public, while Trump was campaigning last week. It also says they had discussed the issue before the restriction was imposed.

The White House and SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Responsibility remains disputed. Reuters had previously reported that the order to limit the satellite system came from inside the White House.

Trump said last week that he did not believe either he or Musk was responsible for Ukraine losing Starlink access. Musk, for his part, said any limits on speed or use of Starlink had been decided by the US military or the president. Those accounts differ from the Wall Street Journal report as described by the South China Morning Post, which attributes the slowdown order directly to Musk.

The reports also disagree in emphasis over whether Ukraine has lost access entirely. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Washington had not withdrawn Ukraine’s ability to use the Starlink network, while suggesting that the difficulty concerned the terms of service Kyiv was required to follow. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he raised “the situation with Starlink/Starshield, which needs to be restored” with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Zelensky was in Oslo in an effort to repair relations with Washington, which the report described as having deteriorated sharply. The Starlink dispute comes amid broader tension involving the United States, Ukraine and Russia. The South China Morning Post reported that Trump had announced a deal to buy Russian diesel, waived new sanctions on Moscow and urged Kyiv to stop attacking Russian refineries.

It also said he had called for Ukrainians to replace Zelensky. Those details provide the political setting described in the supplied material, but they do not establish whether the reported service slowdown was connected to those policies. Nor do they resolve what “military-grade” access means operationally or whether the current restrictions are temporary.

The confirmed points are therefore limited: Ukraine uses Starlink in its war effort; a Wall Street Journal report alleges that Musk ordered a slowdown; Reuters could not verify it; and US and Ukrainian officials have described responsibility and access differently. The reports leave the extent, duration and present status of any restriction uncertain.