Trump Denies Ordering Ukraine Starshield Cutoff as Reuters Reports White House Was Behind It

President Donald Trump said on October 16 that he did not order any limitations on Ukraine's access to SpaceX's Starshield satellite technology, and added that he did not believe Elon Musk was responsible either. "It wasn't me and I don't think it was Elon," Trump told reporters. A senior US official separately told Bloomberg that Trump had not issued the order.

The denial came after Ukrainian officials complained earlier in the week that SpaceX had restricted military internet connectivity without advance notice. A Ukrainian presidential adviser, Serhiy Beskrestnov, said SpaceX had imposed a 100 mph speed cap on Starlink's moving terminals used by the country's drone operators, disrupting battlefield communications and drone missions. Ukraine later said its Starshield access had been restored.

The episode quickly became a contradictory exchange of public statements. Musk, writing on social media while the disruption was active, said that any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and "ultimately POTUS," pointing responsibility back toward Trump. Then Reuters reported, citing two US officials and a Western official briefed on the matter, that the order did in fact come from inside the White House, directly contradicting Trump's account.

The incident unfolded against a backdrop of rising tension between Washington and Kyiv. Trump had called for an "energy ceasefire" in the war, and Ukraine accused Russia of failing to honor it. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy subsequently vowed to resume strikes on Russian oil refineries.