Musk restored Ukraine’s access to Starlink.
US President Donald Trump announced that SpaceX founder Elon Musk has restored Ukraine’s access to the Starlink satellite system.
The American leader said this on October 22 during a conversation with journalists at the White House, Voice of America reports.
Trump did not disclose details of the situation, but noted that he has a “very good relationship” with Musk. He said the main thing is that access to the system has been restored.
Earlier, US Vice President J.D. Vance stated that Musk runs a private company and does not want to be drawn into a war between the two countries without clear instructions from the US government.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, for his part, denied Trump’s involvement in possible restrictions on Starlink and Starshield operations in Ukraine, noting SpaceX’s private nature.
Meanwhile, according to The Wall Street Journal, US President Donald Trump called Elon Musk and asked him to lift the Starlink speed limit for Ukraine.
Earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly assured that no one in the United States had ordered Starlink to be slowed down. He also explained why US President Donald Trump refused to impose the “hellish sanctions” against Russia stipulated by the Graham-Blumenthal Act.
As a reminder, on the night of October 14, Ukrainian military personnel detected a limited Starlink satellite communications service . Specifically, problems arose with the Starshield system—a project by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, built on Starlink technology for the US government and military. Due to the limitation, communications were interrupted at speeds exceeding 160 km/h (100 mph), and sometimes even at 60–70 km/h (37–43 mph). This significantly complicated the effective use of interceptor drones.
That same day , the Ministry of Defense reported that Starshield had resumed operations in flight and that communications were gradually improving . Meanwhile , the Trump administration denied any involvement in the Starlink service restrictions in Ukraine . Washington stated that it would contact SpaceX to determine the cause of the outages.
Subsequently, reports emerged that SpaceX founder Elon Musk proposed restricting Starlink and Starshield access for the Ukrainian military , a proposal Trump supported. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, October 14, Musk denied responsibility for restricting access to Starlink and attributed the blame to the White House.