Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) and SpaceX, ordered a slowdown of Starshield, the U.S. military version of the Starlink internet service, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The report, citing U.S. officials and people familiar with the matter, says the disruption directly affected Ukraine’s ability to respond to Russian attacks.
The slowdown impacted Ukrainian drones, airplanes and helicopters, according to a source familiar with the matter who previously spoke to The Hill.
Musk initially responded to the report by posting on X, the social media platform he owns, that only President Trump or the U.S. military could have ordered such a slowdown.
Musk also said last week that while Starlink is a SpaceX product, Starshield is owned and operated by the U.S. government.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded sharply to the disruption, saying “people will die” and describing the move as a “big mistake.”
The incident comes as both Trump and Musk have grown increasingly critical of Ukraine and its wartime leadership in recent months.
Trump has called for Ukraine to install a new president and signed an executive order waiving sanctions on Russian energy, drawing condemnation from both Democrats and some Republicans.
The United States has also purchased hundreds of thousands of tons of Russian diesel, a move critics argue amounts to directly funding Russia’s capacity to continue its war against Ukraine.
The overlapping decisions by Trump and Musk have raised significant questions about the role of private technology infrastructure in geopolitical conflicts and wartime military operations.
The Starshield program represents a broader and increasingly complicated relationship between the U.S. government and private contractors who control critical communications systems used in active war zones.
Analysts warn that the blurring of lines between government-owned systems and privately managed infrastructure creates vulnerabilities that adversaries and allies alike are watching closely.
