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US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Elon Musk had restored Ukraine’s access to Starshield, a military-grade version of the “Starlink” internet service. Ukrainian officials said on Friday that restrictions remained in place and were complicating Kyiv’s war effort, according to CNN.
Asked whether he had personally requested the restoration, Trump told reporters at the White House: “Whether I called or whether somebody else called doesn’t make any difference.” He added: “I guess the bottom line is he put it back.”
For more than a week, restrictions have disrupted military ordnance travelling at high speeds, Ukrainian officials said. They said this has hindered interceptor drones used to defend against Russian attacks and affected military operations in several areas of the front line.
“At this time, we are not observing any lifting of restrictions on Starlink,” said Serhiy Beskrestnov, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He said isolated cases of the service operating slightly faster than the limits allow were likely due to a “SpaceX” algorithm or specific usage conditions, rather than the restrictions being lifted.
A Ukrainian Defense Ministry source told CNN on Friday that there was “currently no confirmation that the restrictions have been lifted” and that signal loss was still being observed for military ordnance travelling faster than 100 miles per hour (161 km per hour).
“There are definitely speed limits; nothing has changed yet, at least from what I can see here,” a Ukrainian Armed Forces officer told CNN. The officer said interruptions made coordination difficult and that the connection sometimes dropped for 10 to 15 seconds.
“We lost a lot of assets, much more than usual,” the officer added, saying the restrictions had affected reconnaissance drones and drones equipped with “Starlink” systems.
A third source familiar with the situation told CNN on Thursday that speeds were not unlimited and any restored access was “clearly not enough to intercept jet powered drones” launched by Russia. The source said Ukraine was waiting for information and clarification from the US side, but had not received a response.
Trump and some of his senior officials had denied making a call to restrict Ukraine’s use of Starshield, without clearly explaining what had happened. Earlier this week, Trump said he was not involved.
Musk also denied acting unilaterally, attributing decisions on restrictions to the US administration. “Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS,” he wrote in a social media post last week.
US newspapers, including “The New York Times” and “The Wall Street Journal”, have reported that Trump called Musk last week to request the restoration of Ukraine’s full access to the satellite communications network.
On Thursday, Trump declined to comment on a “Wall Street Journal” report that he had directly asked Musk to restore the service for Ukraine. “I don’t want to comment one way or the other, but my relationship with Elon is a very good one,” he said.
A photograph accompanying CNN’s report showed National Police of Ukraine soldiers removing a camouflage case from a “Starlink” satellite communications terminal to set it up at a combat position in Ukraine’s Donetsk region on October 16. Another showed “SpaceX”, “Tesla” and “X” chief executive Elon Musk attending a press briefing with Trump and AI executives outside the White House on September 29.
