By Erin Banco and Gram Slattery
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON, Oct 15 (Reuters) – The order to limit a satellite system used by Ukraine for battlefield communications and drone operations came from inside the White House, according to two US officials and a Western official briefed on the matter.
The officials said leaders at the Defense Department received a message that the SpaceX Starshield service for the Ukrainian military needed to be slowed.
The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, did not specify who in the White House made the decision or who was responsible for implementing the order. The Pentagon is the biggest customer of Starshield, which is the military-grade version of the Starlink service.
Ukrainian officials said this week that military-grade Starlink receptors stopped working in Ukraine when mounted on fast-moving objects, interfering with the performance of Ukrainian drones that rely on them for onboard guidance systems over Ukrainian territory.
A person in Ukraine’s Defence Ministry said on Thursday that the receptors were now working when in motion, but only at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour (160 kph).
US PRESSURES UKRAINE OVER REFINERY ATTACKS
The move to temporarily restrict the vital communications system came as President Donald Trump has pressured Kyiv to stop its attacks on Russian refineries, which he has blamed for the soaring energy prices that are denting his Republican Party’s prospects in the November midterm elections.
But experts say that surge in energy costs is mainly the result of the US-Israeli war with Iran, which brought Iranian attacks on energy facilities and has largely shut the vital Strait of Hormuz.
In response to a request for comment about the order to limit Starshield, a senior US official said: “No such request was ever made by the president.”
The White House did not respond to questions about whether other administration officials might have made the request.
Starshield was developed by SpaceX specifically for government and national-security customers, particularly the US Department of Defense. Starshield uses the Starlink constellation as its backbone.
Ukrainian officials said the restrictions complicated strike missions against Russian forces and logistics in occupied territory and slowed interceptor drones used to shoot down incoming Russian Shahed drones.
Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, said on X on Wednesday that because Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government, any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military or the president.
SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.
The Department of Defense and the Ukrainian embassy in Washington also did not respond to requests for comment.
DECLINE IN RELATIONS
Relations between Kyiv and Washington have deteriorated in recent days following a meeting in Miami on October 9 that convened representatives from both countries as well as Europe and the World Bank.
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration’s Middle East envoy, struck a tough tone with Ukraine in the meeting, according to a separate person familiar with the matter. They told Ukrainian officials that the US was frustrated with Kyiv’s continued strikes on Russian refineries despite repeated requests from Washington to stop.
The US delegation also explained Washington’s decision to strike a diesel deal with Russia, saying the White House hoped it would soften Moscow’s stance on peace talks.
That deal, under which Russia will supply more than 2.25 million barrels of diesel to US and global markets, has triggered a backlash from some US lawmakers, who say it will give Moscow cash to pursue its war without forcing Russian President Vladimir Putin to make concessions to end the conflict.
In the days that followed, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Trump criticized each other, with Zelenskiy calling the US decision on the Russian diesel deal “weak.” Trump called for elections in Ukraine and Zelenskiy’s ouster.
Behind the scenes, American officials threatened to stop providing intelligence to Kyiv about Russian missile launches that Ukraine uses to thwart attacks, as Reuters previously reported. Trump said on Tuesday Washington was still sharing intelligence with Ukraine.
Following the move to restrict Ukraine’s access to Starshield, the Ukrainians made calls on Tuesday and Wednesday to find answers from senior officials at the White House, State Department and Pentagon, a senior Ukrainian official said, adding that Kyiv was told it was a White House decision.
The Pentagon has spent billions of dollars on the Starlink and Starshield services. It has also bought dedicated Starshield satellites, including communications spacecraft for missile-warning missions and a spy constellation for the National Reconnaissance Office, Reuters reported in 2024.
(Reporting by Erin Banco and Gram Slattery; Additional reporting by Steve Holland, Jonathan Landay, Phil Stewart, Joey Roulette, Cassell Bryan-Low; Editing by Don Durfee and Rod Nickel)
