Musk says he was behind Starlink’s slowdown in Ukraine

Elon Musk on Saturday alluded to being behind last week’s Starlink slowdown in Ukraine which impacted the country’s military capabilities.

“Ukraine military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people. That loophole was closed last week,” Musk said in a post on social platform X.

The slowdown happened as Ukraine’s military faced restricted access to Starshield, the military version of Starlink. It targeted Starlink-supported Ukrainian military drones, airplanes and helicopters traveling faster than 100 mph, a source familiar with the matter previously told The Hill. Musk initially claimed that the decisions to restrict the speed or usage of Starshield are made by the U.S. military and, ultimately, the president.

He maintained his claim in Saturday’s post saying Starshield “is controlled by the US government. What they decide to do is up to them.”

“Using Starlink, a civilian commercial service, for offensive drone strikes to kill people has never been allowed, nor should it be,” Musk said in his post.

Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk ordered the slowdown of Starshield, following which several Democrats called for an investigation into the matter.

“Either the President was lying or Musk was lying, but the decision to slow down satellite speed and access has life or death consequences for Ukraine,” Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) wrote on social media . “This deserves a full investigation by the Senate. Elon Musk should be compelled to testify before Congress and under oath.”

On Friday, Ukraine’s military continued to struggle with a slowed Starlink satellite system. The Journal reported that Starshield connections continued to fail in most of the country if drones flew faster than 100 mph.

In his Saturday post, Musk said Starlink is “critical to the defense of Ukraine, as it is the only system that cannot be jammed or blown up, at least for now. Were Starlink to be turned off, the Ukrainian front line would collapse immediately.”

“This is NOT a threat, it is simply a statement of fact,” the SpaceX CEO continued.