Trump Calls Musk to Restore Ukraine's Military Starlink After Throttling Crisis

President Trump personally called Elon Musk on Wednesday and demanded he lift restrictions on a military-grade version of Starlink that had been throttled for Ukrainian forces, according to U.S. officials. By Thursday, both U.S. and Ukrainian officials confirmed the system was operating at higher speeds — though some Ukrainian officials noted it still hadn't returned to full functionality.

The throttle had capped Starlink speeds at around 100 miles per hour, a limit that rendered Ukrainian offensive drones and interceptors unable to maintain satellite connectivity at operational speeds. The practical consequence: Ukrainian hardware went blind during high-speed engagements with Russian attacks. Carnegie Endowment expert Michael Kofman said lifting the cap would meaningfully restore Ukraine's strike capabilities at operational depths and support its rapidly scaling fleet of jet-powered interceptors — and early field reports from Ukrainian military units suggest the system is already performing more reliably.

The slowdown had ignited a week of political turbulence in Washington. It began days after both Trump and Musk publicly criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for striking Russian diesel refineries — attacks Trump blames for higher energy prices. Despite denying he ordered the throttle or knew who did, Trump reportedly told aides and allies this week he wanted it reversed. The episode drove U.S.-Ukraine relations to their lowest point in months and exposed a murky chain of command: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio both framed the decision as Musk's prerogative under SpaceX's terms of service, while Vice President JD Vance offered a more sympathetic read of Musk's position, suggesting it was fundamentally a question of undefined U.S. policy in Ukraine.

The political fallout is expanding. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) announced a formal investigation Thursday into how Starlink was degraded without notice and what the Pentagon's deep dependence on a private SpaceX network means for U.S. national security. Meanwhile, Russia launched another major overnight missile barrage on Kyiv — just one day after Moscow claimed it had agreed to trilateral talks with the U.S. and Ukraine aimed at ending the war.