Elon Musk reportedly ordered slowing down of Starlink access for Ukrainian army

Elon Musk was responsible for the slowdown of Starlink which restricted the Ukrainian army’s ability to carry out attacks against Russia last week, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

The satellite terminals are crucial for Kyiv to carry out long-range drone strikes that have disrupted Russian logistics.

Citing US officials and people familiar with the matter, the WSJ said that Musk and Donald Trump had discussed the decision in a phone call after the outage became public. The matter was also discussed prior to the decision to restrict Starlink, according to the WSJ.

Both Trump and Musk have been critical of Ukrainian attacks on diesel refineries.

According to the publication, Musk capped the speeds at which Ukrainian hardware could stay connected to the network, according to the sources, which rendered its offensive and interceptor drones ineffective.

Volodymyr Zelensky had told Piers Morgan Uncensored that he felt betrayed by the decision and that “people would die” as a result.

Last week, Musk blamed Trump for the limitations on Starlink while Trump said that he did not think either he or the Tesla billionaire were responsible.

“Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and POTUS,” Musk wrote on X in response to a post by Ukraine’s foreign minister Mykhailo Fedorov saying that the technology was “critical” for the country.

“Starlink is a commercial service owned and controlled by SpaceX. Usage of Starlink is limited to civilian or defensive activities and cannot be used for offensive military action, as doing so would be inappropriate for a commercial company.”

On Tuesday, defence secretary Pete Hegseth insisted that Washington had not pulled back Ukraine's ability to access the network but seemed to imply that the problem rested with corporate terms of service Kyiv needed to comply with.

“We haven't pulled anything back. There are terms of service that ultimately need to be complied to, and that's where Starlink has the option to make those decisions,” Hegseth said, when asked about Kyiv’s access to the US military's version, known as Starshield.

“But nothing's changed from our view. We haven't made any directives or anything like that. And we wish the Ukrainians obviously success.”

Poland, which says it pays for Ukraine’s Starlink subscription, hit out at Musk for the decision last week.

“Hey, @elonmusk, ⁠big man, are you playing politics ​with ⁠your products again?” Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski wrote ‌in a post on X on Wednesday. “As your European customers, we are watching you.”

Musk had previously said that “no ‌matter how much ⁠I disagree with the Ukraine policy, Starlink ⁠will never turn off its terminals... We would never ‌do such ​a thing or ‌use it as ​a bargaining chip.”

Tensions have been escalating between the US and Ukraine as Trump urged Zelensky to “settle” and insisted that Moscow was willing to get a deal “done”.

After reports that Ukraine had had access to intelligence restricted, secretary of state Marco Rubio called the claims “scandalous” and denied them vehemently.

After discussions with special envoy Steve Witkoff organised by Finland and Norway on Tuesday, Zelensky said that the access to intelligence had resumed, saying: "Now it works, it's great.”

He said he was hoping to speak to Rubio within the next 48 hours. Meanwhile, Witkoff is reportedly due to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.