Musk's Starshield system 'back' in Ukraine, says Trump
US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that Elon Musk has restored the Starshield military communications system in Ukraine, following a period of service throttling.
The Starshield system, a military-grade version of the satellite-based Starlink network, was slowed down earlier this week, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. The throttling rendered some Ukrainian offensive and interceptor drones virtually useless, a critical issue for the country's defense against Russia's invasion.
Trump confirmed on Thursday that the service is now back, though he would not comment on who made the decision to restore it. "I guess the bottom line, he put it back," Trump said, referring to Musk.
"I don't want to comment on it, you know, whether I called or whether somebody else called — doesn't make any difference," Trump told journalists.
Relations between Washington and Kyiv have been increasingly tense. This tension was exacerbated after Trump called for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to be replaced, following Zelenskyy's criticism of a US deal allowing more Russian diesel into global markets.
Musk stated that any limits to speed or usage of Starshield were "decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS." However, both Trump and then Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon had not directed any changes.
Ukraine has not received a clear official explanation of who ordered the restrictions or why. A senior European official familiar with the matter told AP that the question remains unsolved.
US Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal has opened an inquiry into the matter, seeking to clarify the chain of command behind the service disruption.
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