Trump Asked Musk to Reverse Limits on Ukraine’s Military Internet Use
The call from the president about the Starshield network came after officials in Ukraine reported that they found new limits on the use of military drones in their war against Russia.
A Ukrainian soldier setting up a Starlink satellite internet system, at a position near the front line in the Donetsk region.Reuters
Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaking last month. Rubio said that Mr. Trump nor anyone else “in our system ever requested that any changes to that system be made.”Doug Mills/The New York Times
By Michael Crowley, Maggie Haberman and Siobhán O’Grady
Published Oct. 22, 2026
Updated Oct. 23, 2026, 3:52 a.m. ET
President Trump said on Thursday that Elon Musk had put the Starshield satellite communications network back online in Ukraine. Brendam Hoffman for The New York Times (image provided)
President Trump called Elon Musk last week and asked him to restore Ukraine’s full access to the Starshield satellite communications network, according to a senior administration official and a person briefed on the exchange.
Mr. Trump’s call to Mr. Musk, who owns the Starshield network, came after Ukrainian officials reported that they were encountering new limits on their ability to operate the military drones that have become essential to their war against Russia. The development raised alarms in Ukraine that Mr. Trump, who has demanded that Ukraine stop its drone attacks on Russian diesel refineries, might have instructed Mr. Musk to impose the limits.
Asked on Thursday whether he had made such a call to Mr. Musk, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Trump declined to say. “I don’t want to comment on it, you know, whether I called or whether somebody else called — doesn’t make any difference, I guess. The bottom line — he put it back,” the president told reporters.
When asked for comment, the White House pointed to Mr. Trump’s remarks.
It remained unclear on Thursday whether access to the Starshield network had been fully restored. Some Ukrainian officials said that was not yet the case.
But supporters of Ukraine were cautiously optimistic.
“If these reports are true, this is a welcome development,” Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, posted on X. Mr. Tillis said it remained unclear who, if anyone, had made the initial decision to throttle Ukraine’s Starshield access. But he said that anyone who objects to its restoration should “have the courage to raise your hand, and explain your justification for allowing Putin to continue to mow down toddlers in strollers in Ukrainian parks.”
The issue emerged when Ukrainian drones began dropping from the sky in mid-October. Ukrainian commanders discovered that drones flown against Russian targets at high speeds were suddenly losing their connection to Starshield, a military version of the Starlink satellite communications network owned by Mr. Musk. Ukraine relies heavily on Starshield to operate its drones and for other military purposes as it battles Russia.
The restrictions came without warning or explanation. But Mr. Trump recently demanded that Kyiv halt its drone attacks on Russian oil refineries, which have helped cause diesel prices to surge ahead of the midterm elections. That has led Ukrainian officials and backers of the country to suspect that Mr. Trump might have been looking to constrain or even punish Kyiv for continuing those attacks.
The episode has confused Ukrainian officials and supporters of the country in Washington, and much uncertainty remains. Here is a look at some of the key questions involved.
What is Starshield?
Starshield is the military-grade version of Starlink, SpaceX’s popular satellite internet service. SpaceX, the rocket and artificial intelligence company run by Mr. Musk, says that Starshield is “designed to support U.S. national defense use cases for the Department of Defense and other government partners.” The company says that Starshield offers a higher level of encryption and security than Starlink, allowing for the secure transmission of classified information.
The U.S. government has spent billions of dollars on the technology, and has granted Ukrainian forces access to the network. While Ukraine uses both Starlink and Starshield for internet connection on the battlefield, its leaders say that Starshield is particularly vital because it offers clearer communication at faster speeds than Starlink, along with higher security.
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How does it work?
Like Starlink, Starshield relies on satellites in low earth orbit that have been launched into space by SpaceX’s proprietary rockets. SpaceX said that Starlink relies on more than 6,750 satellites currently in orbit, though it has not disclosed how many satellites are used by Starshield.
Starshield users on earth use satellite dishes, also known as terminals, to receive a signal from the satellites, which is then broadcast as high-speed internet. Devices, whether they are computers or drones, can then connect to that internet signal.
Mr. Musk’s technology has been valuable to Ukraine because Russian attacks since Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of the country have badly damaged much of Ukraine’s communications infrastructure.
Who controls Starshield?
This is the crucial question, and one with an unclear answer.
Mr. Musk has long insisted that the Defense Department makes decisions about the use of Starshield. He doubled down on that assessment last week after facing criticism for Ukraine’s connectivity restrictions.
“Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS,” he wrote on X, referring to an acronym for the president of the United States.
But Secretary of State Marco Rubio seemed to say the opposite this week. The United States “cannot direct a private company,” he told reporters on Wednesday, adding that neither Mr. Trump nor anyone else “in our system ever requested that any changes to that system be made.”
Mr. Rubio chided Ukrainian officials for suggesting otherwise. He also insisted that the Trump administration was not made aware in advance of any new Starshield restrictions.
Appearing on “Fox & Friends” on Thursday, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said that Mr. Rubio — who as a U.S. senator from Florida ardently supported Ukraine’s fight against Russia — had told him in a Wednesday phone conversation that the State Department was working to “unblock” Starlink connectivity in Ukraine.
Another open question is whether SpaceX, which built Starshield for the Pentagon, retains access to its devices after they are handed over to the U.S. government. Mr. Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
How have the Starshield limits affected the Ukraine-Russia War?
Ukrainian troops have found that their drones can no longer fly faster than 100 miles per hour without losing their Starshield connection. In some cases, drones fell from the sky.
While many pilots operating short-range drones were able to resume work at lower speeds, many other operations rely on drones that must fly faster to avoid detection. Those operations were halted, disrupted or delayed, commanders said, as Ukraine urgently sought workarounds to avoid Russian advances.
Russian troops, aware of the sudden disappearance of many longer-range drones, began moving more freely along routes where Ukrainian drones typically attack, commanders and officials said. Starshield does not work in Russia, so the sudden slowdown did not affect any cross-border operations, including any planned strikes on Russian energy infrastructure, officials said. Instead, it hampered vulnerable frontline troops.
It also reduced Ukraine’s ability to intercept the jet-powered drones terrorizing major cities in the country, including Kyiv, Mr. Zelensky said. Not all Ukrainian interception systems rely on Starshield, but those that do must be able to outrace the Russian drones, which move faster than 100 miles per hour.
Is this a turning point in the war?
The disruption to Ukrainian military operations has not been enough to change the course of the war, which has largely been at a stalemate for more than four years along a front in Ukraine’s east.
But Ukrainian officials and their supporters in the West are as worried as they have ever been about whether Mr. Trump may withdraw U.S. support for Ukraine, which includes military intelligence sharing that is vital to Ukrainian operations.
Mr. Trump has taken several steps that favor Russia in recent weeks, including striking an agreement with Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, to purchase Russian diesel fuel. Mr. Trump also recently exempted Russia from a major new sanctions package passed by Congress.
Mr. Trump has also begun a new push to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, something he has long promised to deliver. He has sharply criticized Mr. Zelensky for what he calls the Ukrainian leader’s unwillingness to make peace with Mr. Putin, even though many Western diplomats and analysts argue that Mr. Putin has not offered peace terms that Mr. Zelensky could reasonably be expected to accept.
Mr. Trump’s envoys to Russia, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, are also now discussing potential lucrative business deals between the United States and Russia as part of a settlement.
Many Ukrainian officials fear that the Starshield outage may reflect a broader Trump administration tilt toward Russia as it seeks to fulfill Mr. Trump’s promise to end the war.
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Michael Crowley covers the State Department and U.S. foreign policy for The Times. He has reported from nearly three dozen countries and often travels with the secretary of state.
Maggie Haberman is a White House correspondent for The Times, reporting on President Trump.
Siobhán O’Grady is a Ukraine correspondent for The Times, based in Kyiv.
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