Kyiv, Ukraine —
Ukrainian authorities say Starlink has restricted some military internet services, disrupting operations amid an escalating dispute with the Trump administration.
Ukrainian authorities said they were caught off-guard by restrictions on the military-grade version of Elon Musk’s Starlink, called Starshield.
Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government and any limits on its speed or usage are up to the US military and president, SpaceX CEO Musk said on his social media platform X, adding that Starlink is a commercial service owned and controlled by SpaceX and is limited to civilian or defensive activities.
Musk said Starlink “cannot be used for offensive military action, as doing so would be inappropriate for a commercial company.”
The decision to limit Ukrainian access to Starshield was not a high-level US policy decision, according to two US officials.
CNN has reached out to the White House for comment on Musk’s remarks on Starshield.
On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian forces are trying to leverage the Starlink disruption. With 124 drones launched by Russia overnight and another 145 during the day, Zelensky called it “one of the largest attacks.”
“It is clear that the Russians are trying to take advantage of the problems with Starlink in Ukraine, as our interceptor drones depend on this connection among other things,” he posted to X.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/14/europe/zelensky-trump-russia-fuel-deal-latam-intl
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