Trump says Musk has restored Ukraine's Starlink access; Zelensky says full service is not back yet
US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Elon Musk had restored Ukraine's access to Starlink, the satellite internet service owned by Musk's company SpaceX. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the connection had not yet been fully restored.
Starlink is a network of satellites that provides internet access from space, and Ukraine relies on it for battle communications and for early warning systems during Russian missile attacks. Over the past several days, the service has been at the centre of a dispute over whether its use by Ukraine's military was restricted, and by whom.
Speaking about the restoration, Trump said "Bottom line, he put it back." Asked whether he had pressed Musk to restore access, Trump did not directly answer, and he also declined to say whether he had spoken with Musk about the matter. Zelensky said the speed used by Ukraine's military "has not been restored to 400 km/h [250 mph] yet." He also said he was waiting to hear from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who had promised information within about 48 hours.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that Trump called Musk and asked him to lift restrictions on Ukraine's use of Starlink. Citing officials, the newspaper also reported that Trump told Musk he was frustrated that Starlink speeds were still capped at around 160 km/h. The Journal reported that the system was working more normally on Thursday, shortly after the conversation. BBC News said it had not confirmed the Journal's report and had contacted the White House and SpaceX for an explanation.
The slowdown itself was first described in detail by the Journal, which reported on 20 October that Musk had ordered a slowdown of the service used by Ukraine's military. The paper said the move had blindsided Ukraine. Musk had previously denied being behind the slowdown, which affected Ukraine's ability to use drones against Russia. Reuters reported that the Trump administration had insisted it did not instruct SpaceX to restrict Starlink access, and the White House has repeatedly said it did not order the restriction.
The question of who controls the service has also come up in Musk's own remarks. Last week he said the US government ultimately controls access to Starshield, the military-grade version of Starlink that Ukraine uses for some operations.
Ukraine first reported an interruption to US intelligence sharing on 14 October.
