Trump Confirms: Musk Restored Military Starshield Satellite Service for Ukraine

U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed on October 22 that Elon Musk restored Ukraine's access to the military Starshield satellite service following imposed restrictions that disrupted Ukrainian drone operations. However, Trump declined to confirm whether he personally called Musk to demand the restrictions be lifted.

Trump told journalists he did not want to comment on "whether I called or someone else did," noting that it did not matter. According to him, what matters is that Musk restored access to the service.

Restrictions on the Starshield service — the military version of SpaceX's satellite network — emerged on October 14: Ukrainian military units registered a sharp decline in data transmission speed. The network was capped at approximately 100 miles per hour (160 km/h), which caused loss of communications on moving platforms and disrupted drone operations. Ukraine uses Starshield to coordinate military operations, conduct strikes, conduct reconnaissance, and operate interceptor drones.

A number of Ukrainian officials warned that the service has not returned to full functionality. Thus, the question of whether Ukraine has restored necessary satellite capabilities in full remains open.