Elon Musk initiated the speed cap that cut Ukrainian interceptor and strike drones off from their military satellite links on 14 October, the WSJ reports. Whether President Donald Trump approved it, who passed it to the Pentagon and who changed the network settings remain disputed, and Ukrainian officials and an independent analyst say the cap was still in force a week later.
Elon Musk ordered the slowdown of Starshield, the military satellite service Ukraine's armed forces use to fly interceptor and strike drones, US officials and people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal on 20 October. CBS News reported the same evening, citing its own sources, that a decision by Musk led to the restrictions after he held several conversations with administration officials.
Two investigations published on 16 October reported that the order to slow the service came from inside the White House, citing two US officials and a Western official who spoke to Reuters, and that Musk had proposed the cap directly to Trump, citing four sources who spoke to the Telegraph, one of whom said Trump agreed. Both documented the cap's effect on Ukrainian interceptor drones, the absence of any warning to Ukraine and its timing against Trump's demands over refinery strikes. The 20 October reports, examined in this third investigation, describe Musk ordering the restriction, while the accounts of who approved it, who sent it to the Defence Department and who altered Starshield's settings still conflict.
What the new reports say Musk did
The Journal's sources said Musk capped the speed at which Ukrainian hardware could stay connected to the network, and the newspaper described the change as Musk's directive. CBS's sources said Musk's decision led to the restrictions and that it was unclear how his order was carried out. Neither organisation reported that Musk or SpaceX staff changed the network settings themselves, or that Musk held authority to do so.
Musk wrote on 14 October that Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government and that "Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS". Ukraine's Ministry of Defence said the same day that SpaceX restricted the terminals unilaterally, and nine US senators cited a reported SpaceX acknowledgement of a 100 mph limit. Reuters's sources said Defence Department leaders received the message to slow the service but did not say who was responsible for implementing it.
The Journal's sources split on whether anyone approved the decision, with some US officials telling the newspaper that Musk acted unilaterally and that Trump never specifically ordered retribution against Ukraine, while another person said Musk spoke to several senior administration officials, Trump among them, before imposing the cap. Officials who spoke to CBS said neither Trump nor the Pentagon specifically ordered limits meant to disrupt drone operations, a statement about intent that leaves open whether anyone approved a limit for another purpose.
What Trump knew
Two of the Journal's sources said Musk and Trump discussed the decision in a call soon after the slowdown became public, while Trump was campaigning. A third said the two men had discussed it before the cap was imposed. None of the Journal's sources gave a date for that earlier conversation or described what either man said. The Telegraph's account that Trump agreed to Musk's proposal still rests on one of its four sources, and no other report since has described presidential approval.
CBS's sources placed Musk's earlier conversations with administration officials and said he wanted clarity on the president's thinking. They did not name the officials or say whether Trump took part. The only reported instruction remains the message Reuters's sources said reached Defence Department leaders from inside the White House, and its sender has not been identified.
SpaceX representatives called White House counterparts after the restriction became public, seeking a shared understanding and public message that the company and the administration had coordinated before Musk's directive, according to the Journal's sources. Musk's post of 14 October matched that account by placing authority with the US military and the president, an account the administration's statements over the following week did not adopt.
The denials
Trump said on 16 October that he did not think either he or Musk was responsible and that service was the same as it had always been. On 19 October he told reporters he did not know who was responsible and wanted to find out, and neither statement addresses whether he agreed to a proposal from Musk.
Rubio said on 17 October that nobody at the White House ordered the slowdown, called reports of a White House role categorically false and said the slowdown had "sort of happened" but had been reversed. In Mumbai on 21 October he said "I'm telling you there was no foreknowledge" and that the administration does not control how a private company lets its product be used, adding that Starshield, bought under a military contract, was "a different matter". Pressed on whether a conversation between Trump and Musk would amount to foreknowledge, Rubio said he was not aware of any.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on 20 October that the Pentagon had pulled nothing back, that Starlink could make decisions under its terms of service and that "We haven't made any directives or anything like that". His denial covers directives and leaves open whether systems the Pentagon administers carried out a change requested by SpaceX. A senior Pentagon official told CBS News on 19 October there had been no change to Defence Department policy on capabilities enabled for Ukraine.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on 18 October that Trump and Rubio had categorically denied any administration role and that Zelensky's accusation was "very reckless".
Musk places Starshield limits with the US military and the president, Hegseth places the decision with Starlink's terms of service, Rubio says Ukraine does not have Starshield and Trump says he does not know who acted. By 21 October none of them had said who set the 160 km/h limit or who restored service below it.
Still capped
Trump and Rubio said on 16 and 17 October that service had returned to normal. Zelensky said on 17 October that terminals inside Ukraine still lost connection above 161 km/h while vehicles fitted with them in EU countries kept working at 180 km/h. Denys Sienik, Ukraine's chargé d'affaires in the US, said the same day that the Pentagon and SpaceX had not confirmed that unlimited speeds had been restored.
Zelensky told Rubio by phone on 20 October that the Starlink and Starshield situation needs to be restored. Michael Kofman of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said the same day that Ukrainian drones remained capped at 160 km/h and the working connection had fallen below 130 km/h, hampering strike missions and air defence, and SpaceX did not respond to the Journal's request for comment.
Service up to 160 km/h came back on the evening of 14 October, when Mykhailo Fedorov wrote that connectivity at those speeds was being restored and asked for the limit to be removed. Jet-powered Shaheds fly at about 370 km/h, so interceptors guided over Starshield must exceed the cap to catch them. Ukrainian units reported link drops at speeds as low as 90 km/h, and Dimko Zhluktenko, a drone pilot and analyst in the Ukrainian armed forces, estimated the degradation had cost Ukraine tens of millions of dollars. Ukraine also uses aircraft, missiles and other air defence systems against Shaheds, and the cap affects the interceptor and medium-range strike drones flown over Starshield.
Who controls Starshield
The Space Force's Space Systems Command buys Ukraine's Starshield access, and a Pentagon contract in December 2024 extended it to 2,500 terminals in addition to 500 already connected. The senators wrote that at least some relevant services run through arrangements administered by the US Space Force. CBS reported that the US government pays for Starshield and controls who can access it and that Musk licenses the technology to the US government. The published reporting does not say whether payment and access control extend to settings such as speed limits, or whether SpaceX can change those settings without military approval.
Rubio said on 17 October that Ukraine does not have Starshield, had requested it for deep strikes inside Russia and that its use was under discussion. CBS reported that he said Ukraine's military had only been using Starlink. Ukraine's Defence Ministry, presidential adviser Serhiy Beskrestnov and the senators all identified Starshield as the restricted service, and Beskrestnov told the Associated Press that Ukraine's Starshield package was not used over Russian territory. Rubio's reference to deep strikes fits a reading in which he meant coverage over Russia, which Senators Roger Wicker and Kevin Cramer proposed extending 300 km past the border, but he did not say so.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on 16 October that Germany pays for some of the equipment Ukraine uses and has questions for the US. A source cited by journalist Alex Raufoglu said Germany funds the restricted service under a contract running to April 2027. Poland pays about US$50 million a year for subscriptions on terminals Ukraine uses. Neither government has published its contract or said whether it was told about the cap in advance, and Ukraine appears to receive the service under contracts held by others.
Musk ordered Starlink coverage cut near Kherson during a Ukrainian counteroffensive in September 2022, three people told Reuters, at a time when Ukraine used commercial Starlink service that SpaceX controlled and partly donated. The 2026 cap hit a service the Pentagon bought for Ukraine through government contracts, which places the Defence Department and the Space Force inside any account of who could change it.
The refinery strikes
The cap took effect four days after Trump told Zelensky to stop striking Russian refineries and Musk wrote that Zelensky "has gone too far", and five days after US envoys pressed Ukrainian officials in Miami to halt the strikes. The Journal reported on 20 October that both Musk and Trump had expressed anger at Ukraine over the refinery attacks, which Trump blames for high energy prices. CBS's sources said Musk had expressed distaste at his company being seen as profiting from the continued war.
Wicker and Cramer's proposal, put to Zelensky in Kyiv on 9 October, offered Starlink coverage about 300 km into Russia in exchange for a 100-day pause in refinery strikes. It concerned new coverage over Russia and predates the cap. Rubio's statement on 17 October that Ukraine wants Starshield for deep strikes and that its use is under discussion is the closest any official has come to tying satellite access to Ukraine's strike campaign, and it concerned access over Russia rather than the cap on service inside Ukraine. By 21 October no report had established that Musk discussed refinery strikes with Trump or that the cap was meant to retaliate for them.
Oversight
Nine senators led by Jeanne Shaheen and Thom Tillis asked Defence Department Inspector General Platte Moring on 15 October whether any official directed, authorized, approved, or had advance knowledge of changes to Starlink or Starshield service. They also asked whether SpaceX or a government body imposed the restrictions and whether they complied with US government contracts. The letter asks that communications between the Defence Department and SpaceX, contract records and technical directives be preserved. The inspector general's remit covers the Defence Department and its contractors, including SpaceX, and does not extend to White House staff.
Representative Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said on 18 October that Congress needs to find out who was responsible.
Space Systems Command holds the Starshield contracts for Ukraine, and SpaceX holds the record of the configuration change made overnight on 13 to 14 October and of the partial restoration that evening. The message Reuters's sources said Defence Department leaders received, and the identity of its sender, would be held by the White House and the Defence Department. Records of the Musk and Trump conversations described by the Journal and the Telegraph, and of SpaceX's calls to the White House, sit outside the inspector general's reach. Ukrainian officials hold their own record of the calls on 13 and 14 October in which they were told the decision came from the White House.
The senators asked Moring for written confirmation of an investigation's status and an initial briefing by 1 November 2026.
