SpaceX CEO Elon Musk directed that a ceiling be placed on speeds for the military-grade Starlink variant Ukraine depends on, according to The Wall Street Journal. The service was throttled on Oct. 14, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The cap meant that a number of Ukrainian drones could no longer function, according to The Wall Street Journal. Musk and President Donald Trump spoke about the cap once it had come to light, according to The Wall Street Journal. One of the people cited said Musk consulted a number of high-ranking administration figures, Trump among them, ahead of putting the cap in place, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy publicly objected, saying the throttling left his country less able to defend itself from Russian strikes. That prompted White House officials to open an informal inquiry of their own, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Trump said Monday he had no idea who was behind the interruption. "But I'd like to find out," he said. The White House and an email address tied to Musk were not quick to answer a query seeking reaction to the report, according to CNBC. The Wall Street Journal's story did not come up on SpaceX's investor call after its earnings release, according to CNBC.
Four Democratic senators demanded answers from SpaceX on Monday in a letter to Christopher Cardaci, the company's vice president of legal. The signers were Jeanne Shaheen, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Richard Blumenthal, Sheldon Whitehouse and Chris Coons. They wrote after both Trump and Musk denied involvement in restricting Ukraine's connectivity.
The letter said recent reporting indicated U.S. government officials made the decision to restrict access, and that service appeared to have partially resumed. It cited Musk's statements that "Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the U.S. government" and that "[a]ny limits on speed or usage are decided by the U.S. military and ultimately POTUS." The senators noted that SpaceX owns and operates the Starlink network on which certain Starshield services rely.
The senators asked SpaceX to describe any restrictions placed on Ukrainian assets from Oct. 10 to Oct. 15, identify who was involved in or notified of the decisions, and state when it told the German government, which funds Ukraine's Starlink access. They requested answers and records by Nov. 2.
Ukrainian officials reported on Oct. 14 that terminals moving faster than 100 miles per hour stopped working. Ukraine's armed forces learned of the limit from SpaceX customer support after filing a complaint. Zelenskyy said the restrictions kept Ukraine from intercepting some Russian drones. Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's former defense minister, said connectivity at speeds up to 160 km/h was being restored. Ukraine's government has asked SpaceX to explain the change, and Kyiv had received no response.
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