Follow-Up: Order to Limit Starshield for Ukraine Came From Inside the White House, Sources Say; Senior U.S. Official Says President Made No Such Request
The order to limit a satellite system used by Ukraine for battlefield communications and drone operations came from inside the White House, according to two U.S. officials and a Western official briefed on the matter, Reuters reported. The officials said leaders at the Defense Department received a message that the SpaceX Starshield service for the Ukrainian military needed to be slowed. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not specify who in the White House made the decision or who was responsible for implementing the order. The Pentagon is the biggest customer of Starshield, the military-grade version of the Starlink service.
Ukrainian officials said this week that military-grade Starlink receptors stopped working in Ukraine when mounted on fast-moving objects, interfering with the performance of Ukrainian drones that rely on them for onboard guidance. A person in Ukraine's Defence Ministry said on Thursday that the receptors were now working when in motion, but only at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour (160 kph). Kyiv said the restrictions complicated strike missions against Russian forces and logistics in occupied territory and slowed interceptor drones used to shoot down incoming Russian Shahed drones.
In response to a request for comment about the order, a senior U.S. official said: "No such request was ever made by the president." The White House did not respond to questions about whether other administration officials might have made the request. SpaceX, the Department of Defense and the Ukrainian embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on X on Wednesday that because Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the U.S. government, any limits on speed or usage are decided by the U.S. military or the president.
The move came as President Donald Trump has pressured Kyiv to stop its attacks on Russian refineries, which he has blamed for the soaring energy prices that are denting his Republican Party's prospects in the November midterm elections. At an October 9 meeting in Miami convened by representatives of both countries as well as Europe and the World Bank, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff struck a tough tone with Ukraine, according to a separate person familiar with the matter. In the days that followed, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Trump criticized each other, and American officials behind the scenes threatened to stop providing intelligence to Kyiv about Russian missile launches, Reuters previously reported; Trump said on Tuesday that Washington was still sharing intelligence with Ukraine.
GSM reported on October 14 that a Ukrainian presidential adviser said SpaceX had imposed speed limits on operating Starlink terminals overnight without warning to Ukrainian forces, disrupting multiple missions, with the reason then unclear; this report adds the attribution layer of that episode.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：乌克兰军人在前线架设星链终端（资料图）。Photo: Support Forces of Ukraine Command / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
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- 2026-10-17Follow-Up: Order to Limit Starshield for Ukraine Came From Inside the White House, Sources Say; Senior U.S. Official Says President Made No Such RequestThis story
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