Ukraine Accuses SpaceX of Throttling Starlink for Its Drones as Musk Points to the White House

Kyiv says military-grade Starshield terminals lost speed without warning just as Russia launched one of the war’s largest barrages. Elon Musk says any limits were set by the US military and “ultimately POTUS” — plunging US-Ukraine relations to a new low.

Ukraine on Wednesday accused Elon Musk’s SpaceX of throttling the satellite internet speeds its military relies on, saying the restriction arrived without warning and undercut missions just as Russia rained missiles and drones across the country. Hours later, Musk pushed back on social media, insisting that the military-grade Starshield system is “owned and controlled by the US government” and that “any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS.”

The public row erupted on the same day that Russia launched one of the largest attacks of the war — 39 ballistic missiles and more than 120 drones aimed at Ukrainian energy and critical infrastructure in Kyiv, the Kyiv region and Kharkiv, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. More than 600,000 people lost electricity in the strikes, the Ukrainian leader said.

“In terms of scale, this is one of the largest attacks,” Zelenskyy said in a statement, adding that “it is clear that the Russians are trying to take advantage of the problems with Starlink in Ukraine, as our interceptor drones depend on this connection among other things,” according to USA Today. Zelenskyy described the Russian strikes as “ostentatious disrespect” toward Donald Trump’s call for a halt to attacks on energy targets, Reuters reported.

How the Throttling Unfolded

The accusation was first aired by Serhiy Beskrestnov, a presidential adviser on military communications, who wrote on Telegram that SpaceX had restricted high-speed connectivity on military-grade Starlink terminals “without warning,” Reuters reported.

“Our defence forces did not receive a warning about this limitation, and this led to the disruption of several missions,” Beskrestnov wrote, according to Reuters.

Ukrainian units described terminals losing service when mounted on fast-moving drones. Ukraine’s 7th Rapid Reaction Corps told Reuters that connections dropped for 10 to 20 seconds when drones travelled at roughly 68 to 75 miles per hour, making them harder to control and degrading the interceptor drones Ukraine uses to blunt Russian strikes.

Axios reported on Wednesday that service was partially restored later in the day, but Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said the remaining speed cap — about 100 miles per hour — was still too low for some interceptor drones, including the kind needed against Russia’s jet-powered weapons. By early afternoon Eastern time, Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov announced that “connectivity at speeds of up to 160 km/h is being restored,” adding that “removing Starshield’s speed limit entirely is now critical for Ukraine’s defense.” Fedorov thanked Musk and said he hoped for his continued support, the New York Post reported.

Musk’s Response: Blame Washington, Not SpaceX

Musk, who has faced weeks of questions about Starlink’s role in the war, responded with a detailed post on X in which he drew a sharp line between the two systems his company and the Pentagon operate.

“Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government,” he wrote. “Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS.” He added that commercial Starlink is “owned and controlled by SpaceX,” is limited to civilian or defensive activities, and cannot be used for offensive military action, according to USA Today and the New York Post.

SpaceX declined to comment further on the incident on Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported. Axios reported that Ukrainian officials had contacted the White House, the CIA and the Pentagon seeking clarification about the restriction. According to sources cited by Axios, White House officials told their Ukrainian counterparts that they did not control SpaceX, though one source said the administration planned to contact the company. The White House declined to answer questions on the Starlink matter, the Journal reported, while issuing a statement saying “the President and his team remain committed to continuing to play a constructive role in ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, and he remains optimistic that we’ll ultimately get a peace deal done.”

Zelenskyy: “Betrayed”

The Ukrainian president used a high-profile interview in London to vent his anger. Speaking to Piers Morgan Uncensored during a UK visit that included meetings with Prime Minister Andy Burnham and the King, Zelenskyy said he felt “betrayed” by the United States after access to the satellite communications system was restricted while Russia rained missiles and drones on Ukraine, The Times reported.

The Ukrainian president said “people will die” because of the decision, apparently taken at the behest of the White House, to curb Ukraine’s access to Starshield, the military-grade version of Starlink, The Times reported. “This is not the right side of history,” he told the programme.

Zelenskyy also accused Trump of betrayal over a diesel-fuel deal struck with Vladimir Putin on Friday, arguing that the agreement undercut Ukraine’s position while Russian strikes continued, according to The Times. He said that for the second night running, Ukraine had received no warning from its partners of a Russian ballistic missile attack on Kyiv — historically, the US has tipped Ukraine off about incoming ballistic missile strikes. Trump denied on Tuesday that the United States had stopped sharing intelligence, USA Today reported.

A Rupture Years in the Making

The Starlink row lands atop a relationship that has deteriorated sharply in a matter of days. Last week, Trump abruptly lifted sanctions on Russian diesel and announced a deal to buy millions of tonnes of the fuel from Russia, agreed after a 90-minute phone call with Putin, Reuters reported. Trump ordered Ukraine to stop its long-range strikes on Russian oil refineries — attacks that have been among Kyiv’s most effective tools of leverage — and publicly suggested Ukrainians should replace their wartime leader.

Trump also lashed out at Zelenskyy personally, calling him a “Dictator without Elections” while declining to call Putin a dictator, USA Today reported. Over the weekend, top European and Ukrainian officials said the US warned that Trump could cut off intelligence support or block European weapons purchases for Kyiv if it did not halt its strikes on Russian energy, the Wall Street Journal reported — though US officials denied the threats were ever made.

The dispute has also pulled in Europe. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, whose government pays for Ukraine’s Starlink subscriptions, challenged Musk on X: “Hey, big man, are you playing politics with your products again?” Reuters reported. Musk, who in the past has called Sikorski a “small man,” has not publicly responded to the latest jab.

On Sunday, Trump had also announced that Ukraine and Russia had both agreed to halt attacks on energy targets, effective immediately — though neither side confirmed this, and the past two days have seen intensive Russian bombing, including of Ukrainian power stations, Reuters reported.

Analysis: Why It Matters

The war’s most important antenna now has an off-switch in someone else’s hand. Starlink is not a luxury for Ukraine’s armed forces; it is connective tissue. Since the full-scale invasion began in 2022, the system has carried drone operations, artillery coordination and emergency communications across a front line where Russian electronic warfare makes conventional signals treacherous. The episode lays bare a structural vulnerability that strategists have warned about for years: a sovereign state’s battlefield communications riding on infrastructure owned by a private billionaire and a foreign government. Ukraine did not lose its radios on Wednesday — it discovered, mid-attack, that the rules governing them could change without a phone call.

Musk’s Starshield distinction is legally elegant — and politically explosive. By separating commercial Starlink (SpaceX’s, for civilian and defensive use) from Starshield (the Pentagon’s, for military use), Musk moved the argument from corporate discretion to state policy. If he is right, the throttling was a government decision — and the question shifts to who in Washington ordered it, when, and whether Ukraine’s troops were deliberately left blind. If he is wrong, or partially wrong, a private company imposed a battlefield limitation on an ally during a major attack. Either answer is uncomfortable, and the administration’s refusal to answer questions, as reported by the Journal, only deepens the fog.

The “betrayed” interview is a diplomatic Rubicon. Zelenskyy has spent the war flattering, cajoling and occasionally confronting Western leaders in public, but accusing a sitting US president’s orbit of costing Ukrainian lives — on a British talk show, during an official visit — is a different register. It signals that Kyiv no longer believes quiet channels will fix the problem. The risk is obvious: an American president who has already suggested Ukraine needs new leadership, called off refinery strikes, and bought Russian diesel is unlikely to be softened by being accused of betrayal on television. Zelenskyy’s gamble appears to be that daylight is the only leverage he has left.

The diesel deal is the context that makes the throttle look like pressure. Viewed alone, a speed restriction on military terminals could be a technical glitch or a contracting dispute. Viewed alongside the Trump-Putin diesel arrangement, the demand to stop refinery strikes, the warnings about intelligence sharing and the “dictator” rhetoric, it becomes very hard for Kyiv not to read a pattern of coercion. Whether or not that pattern was intended, perception now drives policy: European officials told the Journal they are “incensed” and argue that ramping up pressure on Russia — not Ukraine — is the only way to end the war.

Expect a sovereignty conversation in every capital. The incident will accelerate an argument already underway in Brussels, Warsaw and beyond: that dependence on a single private satellite network for national defense is a strategic liability. Poland’s fury — it pays the subscriptions — is instructive. Watch for European pushes toward sovereign or diversified constellations, and for governments worldwide re-examining contracts that let foreign providers dial down service at politically sensitive moments.

What to Watch Next

1. Who actually ordered the restriction? Musk points to the Pentagon and the president; the White House says it does not control SpaceX. Congressional or Pentagon statements — or leaked orders — will decide whether this was a policy choice or a corporate one.
2. Full restoration — or a new permanent cap? Fedorov says removing the speed limit entirely is “critical.” If a reduced cap stays, Ukraine’s fastest interceptor drones remain degraded going into winter.
3. The diesel deal’s fate. Critics, including some Republicans, have slammed the Trump-Putin fuel arrangement as a boost to Putin’s war effort with little payoff for Americans at the pump, USA Today reported. Its survival through the midterm-election season is not assured.
4. Zelenskyy’s next venue. Having taken the dispute public in London, the Ukrainian president’s next move — a call to Trump, a European summit, or more media — will show whether the “betrayal” line was catharsis or strategy.
5. European constellation momentum. Watch Warsaw and Brussels for concrete procurement steps toward satellite communications that no single billionaire — and no single foreign administration — can throttle.

Sources

• Reuters — Ukraine accuses SpaceX of crippling drone missions as ties with US worsen
• USA Today — Ukraine says Elon Musk choked internet speeds ahead of Russian attack
• Wall Street Journal — Starlink Suspicions and a Frantic Warning: Inside Trump’s Turn on Zelensky
• New York Post — Elon Musk points to Trump for Starshield throttling in Ukraine