U.S. President Trump asks Musk to restore satellite internet in Ukraine

[Financial News] A claim has emerged that U.S. President Donald Trump asked SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to restore the speed of the satellite internet service provided to Ukraine.
The U.S. Wall Street Journal (WSJ), citing people familiar with the matter on the 22nd (local time), reported that Trump expressed dissatisfaction with the Starshield speed restrictions and mentioned restoring service during a call with Musk the previous day. Trump was also said to have told aides and close associates this week that he wanted to reverse the speed restrictions on Starshield in Ukraine.
Starshield is a satellite internet service for the military and government that SpaceX launched in 2022. Like the civilian service Starlink, it uses SpaceX satellites, but the two differ in how and by whom they are operated. Since being invaded by Russia in 2022, Ukraine has actively used SpaceX’s satellite internet for military operations after various communications facilities were destroyed. The Ukrainian military uses drones for a range of purposes, including medium-range strikes, reconnaissance and resupply, and Starshield is essential for these operations.
Earlier, Starshield service in Ukraine suddenly began experiencing outages on the night of the 13th, with signals cutting out at a certain speed (160 km/h or higher). Frontline Ukrainian units in particular struggled to strike Russian targets as satellite signals to attack drones kept cutting out.
On the 14th, Musk posted on social media platform X that “the Starshield system is owned and controlled by the U.S. government” and that “all restrictions on speed and use are determined by the U.S. military and, ultimately, the U.S. president.” He also warned that Ukraine’s use of civilian Starlink for military operations violated its terms of service.
In response, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on U.S. broadcaster NBC on the 18th, referring to the speed restrictions, “I believe the U.S. government ordered the restrictions, and SpaceX technically implemented them.”
However, Trump told reporters on the 16th, regarding the speed restrictions, “I didn’t do it. Elon (Musk) probably didn’t either.” U.S. Secretary of War (Defense) Pete Hegseth also said in a statement on the 20th, “We didn’t restrict anything,” adding, “There are terms of service that must ultimately be followed [for the use of Starshield], and Starlink has the option to make decisions on that.” In a report on the 20th, the WSJ, citing a person familiar with the matter, claimed that Musk had kept Ukraine’s access to Starshield in place but personally imposed speed limits to prevent the service from being used to operate attack and interceptor drones.
U.S. and Ukrainian officials said on the 22nd, the day after Trump and Musk spoke, that Starshield was operating more normally than before. One official said the system had not fully recovered its functionality but was running faster than before.
On the 22nd, Trump said of the report, “It doesn’t matter whether I called or someone else did. What matters is that he (Musk) restored it.” He went on to emphasize that his relationship with Musk was very good.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance said that day of Musk’s actions, “It’s entirely understandable not to want to get involved in a war without actual direction from the U.S. government.” He added, “This isn’t about Elon; fundamentally, it’s about what U.S. policy toward Ukraine will be.”


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