US President Donald Trump said that Elon Musk has restored Ukraine's access to Starlink, but refused to say whether he personally spoke with the entrepreneur about lifting the restrictions.
“It doesn't matter whether I called or someone else. In the end, he returned it“, Trump told reporters, quoted by the Associated Press. His statement came after the restrictions on satellite communication raised serious concerns in Kiev and Washington.
The restrictions affected a military system
The issue is mainly related to Starshield - the military version of the Starlink technology developed by SpaceX for the Pentagon. Ukraine relies on the systems for communications, drone control and countering Russian air strikes.
According to the Associated Press, a European official familiar with the situation on the ground said the restrictions had not been fully lifted. He said the system's speed remained limited to about 100 miles per hour, or roughly 160 kilometers per hour. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also said that connectivity in the country was still limited. He said Kiev had not received a clear official explanation of who ordered the restrictions and for what reason.
Conflicting signals from Washington
State Secretary Marco Rubio said that decisions about access to Starlink were SpaceX and Elon Musk's, not the White House's. "The president of the United States, nor anyone in our system, has ever asked for changes to be made to this system," Rubio said.
Rubio added that Starlink and Starshield are private technology systems and that the president cannot tell the company how to operate them. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also described the issue as related to the terms of service.
These claims are at odds with information cited by Reuters, according to which two US officials and a Western official indicated that the decision ultimately came from the White House. Reuters also previously reported on data that Trump and Musk discussed the issue after the restrictions were imposed.
Musk himself wrote that the Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government, and restrictions on their speed or use are determined by the US military and ultimately by the president. For the regular Starlink, he indicated that the service is commercial and intended for civilian or defense activities.
It remains publicly unclear whether Ukraine's access has been fully restored, or whether the speed has only been increased after the imposed restriction. The discrepancy between Trump's statement and information from Ukrainian and European officials leaves the question of who made the initial decision without a definitive answer.
Sources: theprint.in, apnews.com, uk.marketscreener.com