Musk and Trump Differ Over Who Controls Starshield Limits in Ukraine

Elon Musk has said the US government is responsible for restrictions on Starshield, a military-grade satellite internet service that he owns, because he said the government controls it. Donald Trump has denied responsibility and said he told Musk to put the restrictions back, according to BBC News.

Starshield is a military version of Starlink, the satellite internet service also run by Musk. The US government provides Starshield to Ukraine. Ukraine uses the regular Starlink service for communications on the battlefield. Starshield, by contrast, is used to intercept missiles and drones in Ukrainian airspace.

Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, said the crucial US service is still operating too slowly, and that this is affecting Ukraine's ability to stop Russian attacks. He said restrictions on how fast Starshield terminals, the ground equipment that connects to the satellites, can run remain in place along the front line and in temporarily occupied territories.

Zelensky said Ukraine is counting on the restrictions being lifted. He argued that protecting lives and energy infrastructure before winter depends directly on that step. He also said he had asked officials to work as closely as possible with the US government and Musk's company on the issue.

Zelensky gave one specific example of the problem. He said Ukrainian interceptor drones, which are designed to hunt down other drones, lose their connection with operators at 161 km/h (100 mph). At that point, he said, they cannot catch up with Russian jet-powered Shahed drones.