President Trump on Friday denied that his administration ordered a slowdown of Starshield, the military version of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet used by Ukraine's armed forces. "I didn't do that. No, we didn't do that at all. In fact, I don't even think it was slowed down from what I understood. Because I just checked this morning," Trump told reporters as he left the White House for a campaign trip to Georgia, the New York Post reported.
"I heard about it from the news, the media. And we didn't slow it down at all. And I think it's probably functioning, from what I understand," the president added.
His comments push back on a Reuters report on Thursday evening that the order to limit the service came from the White House, citing two US officials and a Western official briefed on the matter. ProfiloPolitics covered that report earlier: White House Ordered Slowdown of Ukraine's Starshield Service, Reuters Reports. A congressional source confirmed the report to the Post, while an administration official said the White House gave no such instructions and blamed "Pentagon freelancing."
On the front line in Donbas, a soldier with an artillery unit told Reuters that internet speeds dropped and communication with headquarters "deteriorated significantly" after the change.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told European leaders in Brussels on Friday that Starlink service had improved but had not yet been fully restored.
The dispute comes amid rising tension between Trump and Zelenskiy over Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian oil refineries.
Photo: The White House (Joyce N. Boghosian), public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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