On the morning of October 14, Ukrainian soldiers began reporting restrictions on Starshield, the military version of the Starlink satellite network that is essential for maintaining contact with drones moving at high speed. Serhii Beskrestnov, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, said “this action can’t be a coincidence and is connected to the current political situation,” referring to the conflict between Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump. On the morning of October 15, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said the system was working again. At the same time, no one in the United States has taken responsibility for the outage. Here is a brief summary of the various versions of what happened.
Volodymyr Zelensky, president of Ukraine. It’s their decision. It’s a big mistake. This decision will bring a lot of human losses. People will die if the attacks continue and Starlink doesn’t work. I hope that it’s a mistake, maybe a huge technical problem. We’re asking them to turn it back on. That would be fair.
Elon Musk, head of SpaceX (the satellite operator behind Starlink). 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.
The White House, anonymously. The U.S. presidential administration has nothing to do with the disruptions to Starlink’s operation.
The White House, officially. Declined to answer questions about Starlink. The president and his team remain committed to continuing to play a constructive role in ending the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Thom Tillis, U.S. senator. I’m not holding my breath for Defense Secretary Hegseth to offer transparency, so we’ll be asking the DOD Inspector General to initiate an investigation and report back to Congress and the American People. At best, this was an unacceptable error or lapse, and at worst a conscience decision to clear the field for a Russian attack.
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