Zelenskyy Says Starshield Speed Cap Came From Washington; US Officials Deny It

Image: Starlink

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the speed cap on his military’s Starshield terminals, the government version of Starlink, came from the US government and is still in place. Trump administration officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and President Donald Trump, have denied that anyone in the administration ordered it.

Zelenskyy made the claim in an interview with moderator Kristen Welker on NBC‘s Meet the Press that aired Sunday, October 18. Asked who he blamed for the disruptions, he said “the message came from government” but that he did not know “from whom, what cabinet.” He added, according to the show’s transcript: “It’s not my opinion. It’s opinion of our generals, of our government, and of course my also opinion they say that it was the message from American government to limit this speed, and technically SpaceX did it.”

Asked whether the system had been fully restored, Zelenskyy said no, and that “the speed is maximum 161 kilometers,” or about 100 mph. In the full interview posted by NBC, he said he did not know who made the decision but thought it was “both decisions” when asked about Trump and Elon Musk. “If President Trump will decide tomorrow, or better today, if he will personally decide to lift this decision, it will immediately work as it was before,” he said. Later in the interview he said, “Just give us back Starlink,” adding that Ukraine would keep defending itself without it but that he could not understand the reason for the limit.

On Monday, Zelenskyy said on X that the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces had reported that Starlink and Starshield equipment “stops functioning” at speeds of 130 to 161 km/h (about 81 to 100 mph) in various sectors of the front. He said that is slowing frontline logistics and limiting several types of drones, particularly mid-range strike drones and interceptors used against jet-powered Shahed drones.

In an October 16 post, Zelenskyy said Ukraine does not use Starlink “for our responses inside Russia” and instead uses it to intercept jet-powered Shaheds, for mid-range strikes on Russian military targets in occupied Ukrainian territory, and for drone deliveries of food and water to soldiers on the front line.

Bessent, who appeared later on the same Meet the Press broadcast, was asked by Welker whether he could definitively say no one in the Trump administration ordered the restrictions. He said, “President Trump and Secretary Rubio have categorically said that no one in the Trump administration did that. And I think it is very reckless for President Zelenskyy to make such a charge.” Asked how the slowdown happened, Bessent said, “I don’t know anything about that,” and that Zelenskyy “should be very careful about making statements like this that aren’t true.”

Rubio addressed the issue on Saturday, October 17, before leaving Joint Base Andrews. “Nobody ordered that Starlink speed to be slowed down. It sort of happened, but my understanding is it’s been restored. It’s back to where it was before,” he said, according to a State Department transcript. He also said, “No one at the White House ordered anyone to slow down internet or slow down speed so that certain drones couldn’t use it.” Rubio drew a line between the two services, calling Starlink a commercial product and Starshield a military product that is “not at this moment available to Ukraine.” He said Ukraine has asked for Starshield access “in order to conduct deep strikes inside of Russia,” and that the request is under discussion.

Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday, October 16, that “we didn’t slow it down at all.” Asked whether he or Musk had made the call, he said, “I don’t know if it was anybody because it wasn’t me. And I don’t think it was Elon. And from what I understand, it’s the same as it’s always been.”

Musk’s own position, posted on October 14, is that SpaceX does not set those limits. “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, adding that Starlink is a commercial service owned and controlled by SpaceX and limited to civilian or defensive use. The post, which Tesla North covered at the time, did not say who set this particular cap.

Starshield is built on the same satellite technology as Starlink but is sold to governments for national security work, something SpaceX laid out when it introduced Starshield in 2022. Ukrainian officials have described the capped terminals as Starshield units used by the military, while Rubio said on Saturday that Ukraine does not currently have Starshield access.

Ukraine has leaned on Starlink since the first days of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Mykhailo Fedorov, then Ukraine’s digital transformation minister, asked Musk for help on February 26, 2022, and the first terminals arrived on February 28. The service has since kept front-line units, hospitals and government offices online through attacks on the power grid and cell networks, and in August Zelenskyy awarded Musk Ukraine’s Order of Freedom.

Ukraine has also spent years dealing with Russian forces using unauthorized Starlink terminals, and in February Ukraine worked with SpaceX on a whitelist of verified Ukrainian terminals so the rest could be switched off. Fedorov, now defense minister, said at the time that whitelisted terminals were working and Russian ones had been blocked.

The current dispute began on October 14, when defense adviser Serhii Beskrestnov said a speed cap of about 100 mph had been placed on Ukraine’s military terminals overnight without warning, which Tesla North covered that morning. Fedorov posted the same day that connectivity at speeds of up to 160 km/h was being restored and that removing the Starshield speed limit entirely was now critical for Ukraine’s defense. Musk’s post about who controls Starshield was a reply to Fedorov.

We’ll update if SpaceX or the Pentagon says who set the limit. Do you think we’ll get a clear answer on where the cap came from?