THE NEW YORK TIMES: Donald Trump asks Elon Musk to reverse slowing limit on Ukraine’s military internet use

US President Donald Trump called Elon Musk last week and asked him to restore Ukraine’s full access to the Starshield satellite communications network, according to a senior administration official and a person briefed on the exchange.

Trump’s call to Musk, who owns the Starshield network, came after Ukrainian officials reported that they were encountering new limits on their ability to operate the military drones that have become essential to their war against Russia. The development raised alarms in Ukraine that Trump, who has demanded that Ukraine stop its drone attacks on Russian diesel refineries, might have instructed Musk to impose the limits.

Asked Thursday whether he had made such a call to Musk, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal, Trump declined to say. “I don’t want to comment on it, you know, whether I called or whether somebody else called — doesn’t make any difference, I guess. The bottom line — he put it back,” the president told reporters.

When asked for comment, the White House pointed to Trump’s remarks.

It remained unclear Thursday whether access to the Starshield network had been fully restored. Some Ukrainian officials said that was not yet the case.

But supporters of Ukraine were cautiously optimistic.

“If these reports are true, this is a welcome development,” Repulican Senator Thom Tillis posted on social media.

Tillis said it remained unclear who, if anyone, had made the initial decision to throttle Ukraine’s Starshield access. But he said that anyone who objects to its restoration should “have the courage to raise your hand, and explain your justification for allowing Putin to continue to mow down toddlers in strollers in Ukrainian parks.”

The issue emerged when Ukrainian drones began dropping from the sky in mid-October. Ukrainian commanders discovered that drones flown against Russian targets at high speeds were suddenly losing their connection to Starshield, a military version of the Starlink satellite communications network owned by Musk. Ukraine relies heavily on Starshield to operate its drones and for other military purposes as it battles Russia.

The restrictions came without warning or explanation. But Trump recently demanded that Ukraine halt its drone attacks on Russian oil refineries, which have helped cause diesel prices to surge ahead of the midterm elections. That has led Ukrainian officials and backers of the country to suspect that Trump might have been looking to constrain or even punish Kyiv for continuing those attacks.

The US Government has spent billions of dollars on the technology, and has granted Ukrainian forces access to the network. While Ukraine uses both Starlink and Starshield for internet connection on the battlefield, its leaders say that Starshield is particularly vital because it offers clearer communication at faster speeds than Starlink, along with higher security.

Musk’s technology has been valuable to Ukraine because Russian attacks since Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of the country have badly damaged much of Ukraine’s communications infrastructure.

Musk has long insisted that the Defense Department makes decisions about the use of Starshield. He doubled down on that assessment last week after facing criticism for Ukraine’s connectivity restrictions.

“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,” he wrote on his social platform X, referring to the president of the United States.

But Secretary of State Marco Rubio seemed to say the opposite this week. The United States “cannot direct a private company,” he told reporters Wednesday, adding that neither Trump nor anyone else “in our system ever requested that any changes to that system be made.”

Rubio chided Ukrainian officials for suggesting otherwise. He also insisted that the Trump administration was not made aware in advance of any new Starshield restrictions.

Appearing on Fox & Friends on Thursday, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Rubio — who as a US senator from Florida ardently supported Ukraine’s fight against Russia — had told him in a Wednesday phone conversation the State Department was working to “unblock” Starlink connectivity in Ukraine.

Another open question is whether SpaceX, which built Starshield for the Pentagon, retains access to its devices after they are handed over to the US government. Musk did not respond to a request for comment.

Ukrainian troops have found that their drones can no longer fly faster than 100 mph without losing their Starshield connection. In some cases, drones fell from the sky.

While many pilots operating short-range drones were able to resume work at lower speeds, many other operations rely on drones that must fly faster to avoid detection. Those operations were halted, disrupted or delayed, commanders said, as Ukraine urgently sought workarounds to avoid Russian advances.

Russian troops, aware of the sudden disappearance of many longer-range drones, began moving more freely along routes where Ukrainian drones typically attack, commanders and officials said. Starshield does not work in Russia, so the sudden slowdown did not affect any cross-border operations, including any planned strikes on Russian energy infrastructure, officials said. Instead, it hampered vulnerable front-line troops.