Donald Trump says he was not involved in the Ukraine Starlink slowdown and does not know who ordered it, one day after The Wall Street Journal reported that Elon Musk gave the order himself. “I don’t know who did it, but I was not involved,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday, October 21, when asked directly whether Musk was behind it.
Starlink is the satellite internet service run by Musk’s company SpaceX. Starshield is its military version, built for governments. Ukraine has leaned on both since Russia’s full scale invasion, using them to keep troops connected on the battlefield and to fly the drones it uses against Russian forces.
On October 14, SpaceX put speed limits on the Starlink and Starshield connections Ukraine depends on. On Tuesday, October 20, the Journal reported, citing US officials and people familiar with the matter, that Musk personally ordered the cap. According to the report, the slowdown left Ukrainian military drones ineffective, set off panic in Kyiv and caused confusion inside the Trump administration.
The Journal also reported that Musk and Trump discussed the Ukraine Starlink decision on a phone call soon after the slowdown became public, while Trump was on the campaign trail. One source told the paper the two had talked about it before Musk gave the order. The Journal reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s public complaints led to an informal investigation inside the White House.
The report relies on anonymous sources. Reuters said it could not independently verify it, and Musk, SpaceX and the White House did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
Trump’s denial does not line up with what Musk has said publicly. Musk has said Starshield is controlled by the US government and that any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and “ultimately POTUS,” which points the decision back to Trump. Trump said last week he did not think either he or Musk was responsible for Ukraine losing access, and on Wednesday he did not explain how the speeds could have been capped without anyone at the top signing off.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth offered yet another explanation. He said Tuesday that Washington had not pulled back Ukraine’s access and suggested the problem was terms of service Kyiv needed to comply with.
For Ukraine, the priority is getting the service back. Zelenskyy said he raised the Ukraine Starlink situation with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday and that it “needs to be restored.”
