Follow-Up: Musk Admits SpaceX Throttled Starlink in Ukraine, Citing Terms Violations; Zelenskyy Says Kyiv Believed the U.S. Government Was Behind the Restrictions

Elon Musk, the head of SpaceX, acknowledged on Saturday, October 24, that his company had throttled the Starlink satellite internet service in Ukraine, according to the Associated Press and NPR — ending, at least in part, a week of questions over who ordered restrictions that disrupted Ukrainian front-line operations for more than a week. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the same day that Ukraine's access to Starlink and its military version, Starshield, had been restored to the speeds it had before the restrictions.

"Using Starlink, a civilian commercial service, for offensive drone strikes to kill people has never been allowed, nor should it be," Musk wrote on X on Saturday. "Ukraine military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people. That loophole was closed last week." NPR noted on Sunday that Musk did not say who closed the loophole. He stressed that Starshield is a different system controlled by the U.S. government — "What they decide to do is up to them" — and had posted on October 14 that any limits on Starshield's speed or usage "are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS."

Zelenskyy offered Kyiv's version on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday: Ukrainian officials believed the U.S. government was behind the disruptions to Starlink and Starshield, and that SpaceX imposed the restrictions in response to a "message from [the] American government." In his post announcing the restoration, Zelenskyy thanked "all Americans," including members of Congress, the State Department and President Donald Trump, and said the restoration began overnight and by Saturday morning speeds were sufficient, improving front-line logistics and defense against Russian jet-powered Shahed drones.

Ukraine's Defense Ministry said Saturday its monitoring systems were officially recording restored Starlink and Starshield speeds, with connectivity stable for projectiles and interceptors traveling at more than 250 mph; the restrictions had capped speeds at about 100 mph, hindering drone interception and disrupting missions. Defense Minister Yevhenii Khmara credited "direct dialogue" by Zelenskyy with Washington, saying the outcome mattered most "for our front, for the military, the work of drones, logistics and communications."

The accounts from Washington conflict with one another. Asked on Friday who ordered the restrictions, Trump declined to answer: "I wouldn't tell you if I did know." He also defended Musk, saying, "Elon will never do anything wrong. I know him very well. He's a fair person." Senator Adam Schiff told Meet the Press on Sunday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth should testify before the Senate to clarify the facts: "You've got the president saying one thing, you've got Elon Musk saying another thing, you have them both saying different things at different times. Somebody is lying here. Maybe they're all lying in different ways, but we need to find out." Musk said Starlink "remains critical to the defense of Ukraine" and that the front line would "collapse immediately" if it were turned off; when a user wrote "Zelensky needs to go," he replied, "yes."

The restrictions were first reported on October 14. GSM reported on October 24 that Ukraine had announced speeds were restored, at a time when neither Musk nor the U.S. government had admitted responsibility for the throttling; Musk's public admission that SpaceX throttled the civilian Starlink service is the latest development in this story. The restoration came in the same week as a renewed U.S.-led push to end the war: Russia agreed on Wednesday to resume three-way negotiations with Washington and Kyiv next month, and Kyiv and Moscow agreed on Friday to a localized ceasefire around the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky in Kherson region, brokered by First Lady Melania Trump.

Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)

Photo: 猎鹰9号火箭搭载星链10-40任务自卡纳维拉尔角40号航天发射复合体升空（资料图）。图：美国太空军，公共领域，经维基共享资源。 / A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Starlink 10-40 mission launches from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (file photo). Photo: U.S. Space Force, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

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