Musk approached Trump to slow down Starlink in Ukraine

Elon Musk approached Donald Trump with the idea of slowing down Starlink in Ukraine, The Telegraph can reveal.

The billionaire tech entrepreneur approached the US president with the proposal to introduce speed limits on the system, which hampered Ukraine’s drone defences, according to four sources familiar with the discussions.

One of the sources said Trump “agreed” with Musk’s suggestion, paving the way for the Pentagon to execute the slowdown on Starshield, the military-grade version of the satellite communications system.

Musk had previously blamed Trump for the chaos, claiming any changes would have been decided by the US military and ultimately the president.

At the time, Trump was embroiled in a row with Volodymyr Zelensky over Ukraine’s strikes on Russian oil refineries.

US officials had warned Kyiv’s team of peace negotiators that Washington could shut off intelligence-sharing and other kinds of support if the long-range attacks were not halted.

Earlier this week, one of Zelensky’s advisers said Musk’s SpaceX had restricted access to the Starshield system, used by Kyiv to intercept jet-powered drones and strike behind enemy lines.

Speaking on the fringes of an EU summit in Brussels on Friday, the Ukrainian president called the slowdown a “very dangerous and unpleasant surprise”.

On Wednesday, Musk denied he was responsible for limiting Starlink access, blaming the White House. He claimed that “any limits on speed or usage” were “decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS”, referring to Trump.

However, after what was described as a “night of carnage” in Kyiv because of the blackout, a senior source said Musk had been alarmed about the possibility of adverse consumer reaction in Europe.

The source said: “He tweeted out that he was innocent and that it was the US administration that did it. The reality is that they were both in it.”

A high-ranking European official and two well-placed Ukrainian sources confirmed this version of events.

Speaking at the White House on Friday evening, Trump said he did not think either he nor Musk had been responsible for Ukraine losing Starlink access.

On Friday, an anonymous US official, cited in a report by the AFP, insisted that Trump did not make the request for a reduction of Starshield’s services for Ukraine. “No request was ever made by the president,” the US official said, after a report by Reuters claimed the decision came from the White House.