Ukrainian officials say Starshield restrictions still in place, despite Trump’s claims
By Lauren Kent, Kosta Gak, Adam Cancryn, CNN
(CNN) — US President Donald Trump on Thursday claimed that Elon Musk had restored Ukraine’s access to a military-grade version of his Starlink internet service, called Starshield, but Ukrainian officials have said restrictions remain in place that are complicating Kyiv’s war effort.
Trump asked Musk in a phone call in recent days to restore Ukraine’s full access to the Starshield satellite system, a person familiar with the matter told CNN. Trump had been seeking out information about the slowdown and went to Musk after Ukrainian officials reported disruptions, the source said.
However, Trump has declined to comment on the call publicly, telling reporters at the White House, “Whether I called or whether somebody else called, doesn’t make any difference, I guess. The bottom line – he put it back.”
But those restrictions remain in place despite the comments from Trump, Ukrainian officials said on Friday morning.
For more than a week, the restrictions have disrupted any military ordnance moving at high speeds – hindering interceptor drones in defending against Russian attacks and upending Ukrainian military operations in many areas of the front line, Ukrainian officials have said.
“At this time, we are not observing any lifting of restrictions on Starlink,” said Serhiy Beskrestnov, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “There are isolated cases where Starlink may operate slightly faster than the restrictions allow, but this is likely due to the SpaceX algorithm or specific usage conditions, rather than a lifting of the restrictions.”
A Ukrainian Defense Ministry source told CNN on Friday morning that “there is currently no confirmation that the restrictions have been lifted” and “instances of signal loss are still being observed” for any military ordnance travelling above 100 miles per hour (161 kilometers per hour).
“There are definitely speed limits; nothing has changed yet, at least from what I can see here,” a Ukrainian Armed Forces officer told CNN. “It makes coordination difficult; sometimes there are interruptions. The connection drops out for 10 to 15 seconds.”
“We lost a lot of assets, much more than usual,” the officer added, saying the restrictions have affected reconnaissance drones and drones with Starlink-equipped systems on board.
A third source familiar with the situation told CNN on Thursday afternoon that speeds are not unlimited, and any restored access is “clearly not enough to intercept jet-powered drones” launched by Russia.
Ukraine is waiting for information and clarification from the US side about the situation and there is no response yet, the source said.
Trump and some of his top officials had denied making the call to throttle Ukraine’s use of the Starshield service, without offering any clear explanation for what had actually happened. Earlier this week, Trump said he was not involved.
Musk also denied taking unilateral action, pointing the finger toward the Trump administration. “Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS,” he said in a social media post last week.
The Wall Street Journal first reported that Trump called Musk last week to request he restore Ukraine’s full access to the satellite communications network. Trump on Thursday declined to answer questions about the phone call, even as he claimed Musk had restored access.
“I don’t want to comment one way or the other, but my relationship with Elon is a very good one,” the US president said.
Russian attacks persist while Ukrainian interceptors hindered
While Ukrainian defenses remain hampered by the Starshield restrictions, Russian attacks using jet-powered drones and other strike drones have continued. Russia launched 176 attack drones on Thursday night and in the overnight hours, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.
At least nine civilians have been killed and 76 injured in the last day, according to a CNN tally of local officials’ reports across the country.
The deputy energy minister of Ukraine said that Russian attacks targeted energy infrastructure in six regions, leaving more than 500,000 people without power on Friday. The country’s State Emergency Service also said a series of attacks on the Sumy region hit civilian infrastructure and residential areas.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said it hit a railcar depot used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the central Poltava region and the Danube River port of Vylkove in southern Ukraine.
Russia also intercepted and destroyed 443 Ukrainian drones overnight, the Russian defense ministry said. Three civilians were injured by falling debris in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region, according to the local governor on Friday.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
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CNN’s Kevin Liptak, Jennifer Hansler, Victoria Butenko and Lucas Lilieholm contributed to this report.
