Musk Ordered Starlink Slowdown That Blindsided Ukraine

WASHINGTON—Elon Musk ordered the slowdown of a military-grade version of Starlink relied on by Ukraine, a decision that sparked panic in Kyiv and confusion inside the Trump administration, U.S. officials and people familiar with the matter said.

Both Musk and President Trump have expressed anger at Ukraine for attacking Russian diesel refineries in recent weeks, which the president blames for high energy prices. Last week, Musk capped the speeds at which Ukrainian hardware could stay connected to the satellite-based network, the people said, rendering some offensive drones and interceptor drones virtually useless.

Musk and Trump discussed the Starlink decision in a call soon after the slowdown became public, while the president was campaigning last week, two of the people said. One of the people also claimed Musk and Trump discussed the matter prior to the decision to throttle Starlink.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s public complaints—namely that Ukrainians could die if the unrestricted service wasn’t restored—led to widespread confusion about who ordered the slowdown, and to an informal investigation inside the White House.

During the uproar, SpaceX representatives called White House counterparts seeking a unified understanding and subsequent message that the company and Trump administration coordinated ahead of Musk’s directive, the people said.

Musk himself posted on X hours after the slowdown became public, “Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS,” using the acronym for president of the United States. Trump told reporters Monday that he didn’t know who was responsible for the Starlink...

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If Zelensky feels Americans should pay $2/gallon more for diesel so bad people can be confronted, he should make that claim on American TV.

Democrats are campaigning on affordability. They think it is a winning issue.

Yet there are no sources anywhere in which the US government admits to restricting Starlink availability to Ukraine.

So Trump didn’t do it. So musk didn’t do it. So the military didn’t do it. Who did?

I wholeheartedly endorse and support restricting Starlink access to Ukraine when they are going to use it to target Russian oil and energy sources, which has an adverse effect to US gas prices.

This being the case, I don’t see why Trump and musk and Hegseth and everybody else doesn’t take full credit and responsibility for this. This needed to be done.

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