US President Donald Trump has denied limiting Ukraine’s access to Starlink’s sister internet network Starshield after it restricted drone speed, hampering Kyiv’s ability to protect itself from Russian attacks. “It wasn’t me and I don’t think it was [Starlink owner] Elon [Musk],” Trump said, hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said speed had yet to be restored. Musk himself suggested the US government might have been behind the restrictions, while Reuters news agency reported on Thursday that the order had come from inside the White House. Ukraine was hit by several deadly strikes on Tuesday after the network slowdown.
Starlink is a civilian-use high-speed internet network operated by Musk’s SpaceX. Starshield – which relies on Starlink- is its military-grade sister service that was designed for the Pentagon. The US had previously warned it could withhold sharing intelligence, crucial for Kyiv’s defences, if Ukraine did not stop hitting Russian oil refineries. Tension has been brewing between Washington and Kyiv for days over a recent controversial diesel deal between Russia and the US.
Zelensky – angered by the deal – resumed targeting Russian oil refineries this week in a move criticised by Trump three days after he announced a ceasefire on energy infrastructure. Kyiv said it would stop the strikes if Russia did the same but Moscow never confirmed the ceasefire and continued its attacks. “If I don’t stand up to this… who else will?” Zelensky asked EU leaders at a summit on Friday. Trump had also said that Zelensky was “more difficult to deal with than [Russian President Vladimir] Putin”.
But speaking to reporters as he left the White House on Friday, the US president said he had a good relationship with his Ukrainian counterpart. Asked about Starshield, he said he was “not sure” it “ever came down”. Musk earlier explained that Starshield was managed by the US government, and that the Pentagon could have been responsible. In its report about the alleged order regarding Starshield, Reuters quoted two US officials and a Western official briefed on the matter.
The US government has allowed Ukraine to use Starlink and Starshield in its defence against Russia. Musk cut Moscow’s access to the service in February, giving Kyiv an advantage in the conflict. On Tuesday night, Starlink restricted speed limits to 100mph (160km/h), meaning any weapons that travelled faster than that lost connectivity to the network. Some 600,000 in Ukraine were left without power as communications and energy facilities used by Ukraine’s military were also hit in the deadly attacks.
A bipartisan group of US senators has signed a letter demanding an investigation into the disruptions to the network. “Restrictions reportedly degraded Ukraine’s ability to conduct defensive operations against Russian drone and missile attacks on civilian infrastructure,” the letter read. On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron vowed that EU states would not abandon Ukraine. Speaking at the end of the two-day summit in Brussels attended by Zelensky, Macron said it was Europe’s job to hold the line in the face of some people’s “ambiguities”.
That was apparently a reference to signs of wavering US support for Ukraine. Funding for Ukraine and helping it get through another freezing winter – its fifth since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 – topped the summit’s agenda. The war will cost €155bn (£131bn; $174bn) next year, Zelensky told the European Council, with at least €70bn needed to come from the EU for defence and weapons. Macron said Europe was working to help Ukraine with its satellite and early warning systems, and Ukraine’s friends would look at its request for further aid.
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