Recent efforts to throttle Ukraine's access to satellite systems have created a blame game of sorts among Trump administration officials and their allies, who have offered mixed messages about what led to the sudden restrictions on Kyiv's ability to intercept Russian strikes.
The limitations placed on Starshield – SpaceX’s military-grade version of the Starlink satellite internet service and the backbone of Ukraine's drone operations and communication – last week alarmed the country's military and government officials, with commanders reporting lost drones and disrupted missions. After days of handwringing, US President Donald Trump asserted Thursday that the service is running again at full speed.
Read moreWhat is Starshield, SpaceX's military version of Starlink?
However, a senior European official familiar with the situation on the ground in Ukraine said Thursday that nothing has changed in the operation of Starshield, with its speed cap still set at about 100mph (160kph). Ukraine has not received a clear official explanation of who ordered the restrictions or why, according to the official, who was not authorised to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The episode and subsequent lack of accountability have sent shock waves through Russia hawks and Ukraine's allies on Capitol Hill. Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal announced a new inquiry into how the technologies were slowed down for Ukraine’s defence systems.
Questions have percolated since last week about who ordered the interruptions to the Elon Musk-made satellite internet system that Ukraine has relied on for years to counter Moscow's attacks.
Trump, as recently as Thursday, has maintained that he didn’t make the call. Vice President JD Vance has hinted at White House coordination with Musk, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth have denied any administration involvement.
Musk – one of the GOP's biggest donors and a Trump ally – indicated that because Ukraine was using the military-grade version of his technology, questions about the service should be directed to the Pentagon.
Restrictions expose Ukraine's Starlink dependency in Russia war
To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement.
One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site.
Over the last week, Trump has repeatedly told reporters that he didn’t order restrictions on a satellite communications system used by Ukraine’s military, causing its drones to lose speed.
The president also earlier doubted the disruption came from Musk, formerly a close adviser and frequent companion.
“Well, I don’t know if it was anybody, but it wasn’t me, and I don’t think it was Elon,” Trump said Friday. “And from what I understand, it’s the same as it’s always been.”
On Thursday, Trump appeared to confirm that the service had been down and claimed that it was once again working at optimal speeds. The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk had agreed to lift restrictions, and Trump demurred when asked if he had requested to lift the cap.
“You know, whether I called or whether somebody else called, doesn’t make any difference,” Trump told reporters. “I guess the bottom line, he put it back.”
Read moreWho capped Starlink in Ukraine? Musk, Trump and Rubio give three different answers
In Cincinnati on Thursday, Vance was asked about Musk’s involvement in the slowdown of Starlink and Starshield in Ukraine and whether it warranted an investigation.
“I think that fundamentally, Elon Musk runs a private corporation,” Vance told reporters. “And I think it’s completely understandable that he doesn’t want to get in the middle of what is a war between two state actors without the United States government effectively directing him on what to do.”
Vance continued: “So I don’t think this is about Elon. I think it’s fundamentally what is America’s policy in Ukraine and Russia going to be.”
Rubio has insisted that the Trump administration and the US government more broadly had nothing to do with interruptions to Ukraine’s access to crucial satellite data.
Read moreUkraine’s Pavlohrad refuses to yield to Putin despite unrelenting bombardment
Speaking to reporters in India on Wednesday, Rubio said for the third time in four days that any throttling of network access to Ukraine was not directed or ordered by Trump or anyone else in his administration. He suggested, though, that the owner of the system – Musk – may have been involved.
“What I can tell you with certainty is the president of the United States nor anyone in our system ever requested that any changes to that system be made, and that’s what we said repeatedly,” Rubio said. “The president has nothing to do with the decisions that are made by Starlink and Starshield and by Mr. Musk. That’s a private company. The president doesn’t run that company and can’t direct that company to do anything.”
Hegseth has echoed Rubio's comments, denying on Tuesday any American role in slowing down the satellite internet service while also pushing the responsibility to Musk's company.
“We haven’t pulled anything back,” Hegseth told reporters, before adding that “there are terms of service that ultimately need to be complied to".
He offered no elaboration on what terms of service Ukraine needed to comply with but said that “Starlink has the option to make those decisions.”
Read more‘No change’ in Russia’s attitude on war shown by deadly attacks, Zelensky says
Musk, the world's richest man and leader of the company behind Starlink and Starshield, last week put the onus on the Trump administration.
“Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS,” he wrote October 14 on X.
“Starlink is a commercial service owned and controlled by SpaceX. Usage of Starlink is limited to civilian or defensive activities and cannot be used for offensive military action, as doing so would be inappropriate for a commercial company,” Musk added.
The wartime president has been working to reverse the restrictions imposed without warning last week.
Shortly after the systems failed to work, Zelensky said that there were no similar restrictions in European Union countries and that they apply only to Ukraine. “In other words, this is a planned operation,” he said.
Zelensky spoke to a bipartisan group of US lawmakers Monday, saying in a video of the briefing posted to social media that “we still face speed restrictions on Starlink and Starshield services in different parts of the front, and we still have no explanation for this. Just different strange stories.”
In an interview Wednesday on “Fox & Friends," Zelensky said that Starlink connectivity is still limited in Ukraine and that he was told by Rubio he would work to “unblock” the slowdown.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)