Ukraine reports higher speeds, while full functionality remains unresolved
President Trump called Elon Musk and asked him to lift restrictions on a military-grade version of Starlink used by Ukrainian forces, U.S. officials said. The reported request concerned a system Ukraine’s forces use to defend themselves along the frontline.
U.S. and Ukrainian officials said the system was working more normally on Thursday, shortly after the conversation. Some Ukrainian officials said Starlink had not been restored to full functionality but was operating at higher speeds than it had under the cap.
U.S. officials said Trump told Musk he was frustrated that Starlink speeds remained capped at around 100 miles per hour. The officials said the limit rendered some of Ukraine’s offensive drones and interceptors powerless against Russian attacks.
Trump also told aides and allies that week that he wanted to reverse the slowdown, the officials said. His call with Musk followed a Wall Street Journal report revealing that Musk had ordered the slowdown.
SpaceX and the White House had differing accounts over whether Musk acted alone or at the administration’s behest, according to the report. The White House referred The Wall Street Journal to Trump’s recent denials that he had asked Musk to throttle Starlink’s speeds and knew who issued the order.
Michael Kofman, an expert on the war at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said, “Removal of the throttle limit will do much to enable Ukraine’s strike capabilities at operational depths and its current effort to scale up deployment of jet powered interceptors.”
Kofman said he had heard from Ukrainian military units that early tests suggested Starlink was now working more regularly. Some Ukrainian officials, however, said the system had not returned to full functionality.
Musk, SpaceX and Ukraine’s Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Journal previously reported that Trump and Musk spoke about Ukraine and Starlink on the day the slowdown became public.
The reported call did not resolve the dispute over control of the military service. Starlink was working more normally, but some Ukrainian officials stopped short of saying it was fully restored, and the White House’s response did not settle whether Musk acted independently or at the administration’s behest.
Earlier, Ukrainian officials suspected Trump had ordered Starlink access restrictions, while Musk said the U.S. military and Trump decided military-service limits. The reported call directly advances those accounts by indicating that Trump pressed Musk to reverse the slowdown, while full restoration remained unresolved.