Starshield's shortcomings in Ukraine: Elon Musk has blamed it on Donald Trump

Ukraine accused SpaceX of slowing down its military satellite internet service, prompting Elon Musk to deflect blame onto U.S. President Donald Trump. On Wednesday, Musk stated on X that Starshield, the military variant of Starlink, is controlled by the U.S. government and any restrictions are decided by the American military and ultimately by the president. This came after Ukrainian officials reported that data transmission via Starshield slowed significantly when drones carrying terminals exceeded 160 km/h. A Ukrainian officer described the slowdown as akin to a nuclear strike against the country, highlighting the critical role Starlink has played in Ukraine’s defense since SpaceX blocked Russian access to the service earlier this year. After the issue was resolved, President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Musk, but Musk quickly clarified he was not responsible for the restrictions. The situation raised confusion among observers, as the use of Starshield by the Ukrainian military had not been widely known prior to these reports. Huseyn Aliyev, a specialist in Ukraine war studies at the University of Glasgow, confirmed he was previously unaware of large-scale Ukrainian use of Starshield. Starshield is a military-specific version of Starlink, developed for the U.S. armed forces with enhanced security features and requiring specific access keys. Emma Salisbury, a specialist in military and national security issues at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, noted that details about Starshield are classified as defense secrets, making it difficult to ascertain how different it is from the civilian Starlink system. Jonas Vidhammer Berge, a specialist in technological developments at the Norwegian Defence Research Institute, added that determining which countries have access to Starshield is complicated due to lack of transparency around the program. Mark Hilborne, an air force specialist at King’s College London, stated that the U.S. military is the primary user of Starshield and provides it to the Ukrainian army. He also mentioned that the British military uses the service as well. According to Musk’s statement, the Pentagon under Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth intentionally imposed speed limits on Starshield at the request of President Trump. These restrictions caused latency in communications between pilots and drones whenever the drones flew faster than 160 km/h, some reports suggest even as low as 60 km/h. Military officials indicated that SpaceX began abruptly halting the operation of its military terminals across the country, including areas under Russian control, when Ukrainian drones moved at high speeds. A defense ministry source and another military official told Reuters that the speed restrictions hindered Ukraine’s ability to conduct strikes against Russian targets within its territory and defend against Russian drones using its own interceptor drones. James Sherr OBE, a member of the International Centre for Defense and Security in Estonia, described cutting off Starlink as equivalent to flipping a switch, causing everything to halt immediately. While there are alternative systems that could partially compensate for Starlink’s functions, transitioning to them would be complex, making a Starlink outage a major problem. Zelensky expressed frustration over the restrictions during an interview with British Prime Minister Andy Burnham in London. In a message posted on Telegram afterward, he called the situation a “serious mistake” that would lead to “many human losses,” though he did not specify who was responsible. During an interview with the British show “Piers Morgan Uncensored,” Zelensky said he felt “betrayed” by recent statements from Trump, particularly regarding the purchase of Russian diesel, but emphasized that the issue was more about his country’s survival than personal feelings.