Telegraph says Musk proposed Ukraine Starshield speed limit to Trump

Ukraine is trying to lift a speed limit on Starshield, the military satellite service used by its armed forces, after the restriction disrupted drone operations. The Telegraph reported on Friday that Elon Musk had proposed the limit to US President Donald Trump. Trump says neither he nor, to his knowledge, Musk was responsible. [4] [2]

Serhii Beskrestnov, a defence technology adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told the Associated Press that the connection cuts out when a terminal moves faster than 160 km/h (100 mph). That is a problem for Ukrainian interceptor drones pursuing much faster Russian jet-powered drones. He said Ukraine was in talks with SpaceX and the Pentagon about removing the cap, but could only guess who would make the decision or influence it. [4]

Starshield is a military service built on Starlink technology; a restriction on its terminals does not mean the entire commercial Starlink network has been switched off. Ukrainian drone commander Yevhen Karas told AP that his unit had lost drones and that some missions had failed when communications stopped. Its service had returned to the required speed by Thursday, he said, although he did not know whether the interruption was caused by a technical malfunction or something else. [5]

The Telegraph attributed its account of Musk’s proposal to four unnamed people familiar with the discussions. One said Trump had agreed, which the paper said paved the way for the Pentagon to slow Starshield. Reuters separately reported, citing two US officials and a Western official, that an instruction to slow the service came from inside the White House. Those officials did not identify who made the decision or carried it out, and their account does not establish Musk’s alleged role. [2] [3]

A senior US official told Reuters that the president had made no request for the restriction. Trump told reporters on Friday: “It wasn’t me, and I don’t think it was Elon.” Musk has said the US government controls Starshield and decides its usage limits.