Brussels told Elon Musk's company to switch Ukraine's full satellite service back on now, calling the reported slowdown "deeply concerning" — but Washington says the call is not the White House's to make, because the service runs on a private commercial contract.
The European Commission publicly demanded on Wednesday that SpaceX urgently restore full Starlink service for Ukraine, after Kyiv reported speed restrictions on the satellite network at key points on the front line with Russia. Thomas Regnier, the Commission's spokesperson for defence, told the midday briefing in Brussels that the latest reports were "deeply concerning" and inconsistent with the way the company had been providing the service.
Regnier said Ukraine needs the digital infrastructure to "keep its soldiers connected and protect its citizens," and he urged SpaceX to "urgently restore full service for Ukraine." The war, he said, has shown "to what extent Europe's security depends on space."
"The latest reports that Starlink has slowed down its services in Ukraine are deeply concerning."
The demand follows days of complaints from Kyiv. President Volodymyr Zelensky has denounced speed restrictions affecting Starlink and Starshield, SpaceX's military-grade version of the network, saying terminals lose their connection once they move above roughly 100 miles per hour — disrupting the interceptor and strike drones Ukraine uses against Russian attacks. The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Musk himself ordered the slowdown of the military-grade service, citing US officials and people familiar with the matter. Musk has publicly said that any limits on Starshield are decided by the US military and "ultimately POTUS," because the government owns and controls that system.
Washington's answer, delivered the same day, is that restoring the service is not its decision to make. Speaking to reporters in Mumbai, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Starlink access "is governed by a private commercial contract as to how their stuff can be used and what speeds they'll allow it to be used at" — a decision for Musk and SpaceX, not the White House. Rubio said he was not aware that the administration knew of the decision beforehand. Reuters has cited officials briefed on the matter saying the decision ultimately came from the White House, a version the administration denies; President Donald Trump has said he did not order any slowdown and did not believe Musk was behind it either, and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has likewise described the cutoff as a commercial matter governed by terms of service.
Regnier conceded that Europe has to do more itself. "Europe must do more; it is an urgent need that we ourselves have," he said. The Commission is promoting IRIS², its planned secure satellite constellation of more than 300 satellites, which it intends to involve Ukraine in, and it is negotiating Ukraine's full participation in GovSatCom, the platform that has pooled EU member states' satellite capacity since January. But the bloc's own timeline offers Kyiv no quick rescue: EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas admitted days ago that, "unfortunately," Europe is not in a position to replace the capacity Starlink provides in the short term, and IRIS² is not expected to be fully operational until 2029.
So Ukraine's battlefield connection still runs through a private American network. On Wednesday, Brussels asked for it to be switched fully back on — and Washington answered that the switch is not theirs to flip.