Musk ordered Starlink slowdown that hit Ukraine's drones, Wall Street Journal reports

Elon Musk ordered the slowdown of Starshield, the military-grade version of SpaceX’s Starlink service that Ukraine’s armed forces rely on, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday 20 October, citing US officials and people familiar with the matter. Reuters relayed the report and said it could not independently verify it.

According to the Journal, Musk last week capped the speed at which Ukrainian hardware could stay connected to the network, which the people said made some offensive and interceptor drones “virtually useless”. The paper said Musk and President Donald Trump discussed the decision in a call soon after the slowdown became public, and that the move caused confusion inside the administration. SpaceX did not respond to the Journal’s request for comment, and Musk, SpaceX and the White House did not immediately respond to Reuters.

The account differs from earlier statements. Last Wednesday, hours after the slowdown became public, Musk wrote on X 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”. Reuters reported last week, citing two US officials and a Western official, that the order came from inside the White House; a senior US official told Reuters that “no such request was ever made by the president”.

Ukrainian officials have said terminals stop working above about 160 km/h, and President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the limit has not been fully lifted, the Kyiv Independent reported.

For earlier coverage, see Ukraine says Starlink speed limits still affect drones and Zelensky calls US restrictions “unfair”.