Musk Ordered Starlink Slowdown That Blindsided Ukraine, WSJ Reports

3-line summary

• The Wall Street Journal reported, citing US officials and people familiar with the matter, that Elon Musk last week ordered a slowdown of the military-linked Starlink (also referred to as Starshield) service that Ukraine relies on; Reuters said it could not independently verify the report. The restriction disrupted Ukrainian strikes on Russian targets and air-defense drone missions.
• Musk and Trump had discussed the issue before the slowdown and spoke again shortly after it became public, while Trump was on the campaign trail; the decision came after Trump waived sanctions on Russian diesel to ease fuel prices that had spiked since the US-Israel war with Iran began in February, after which Trump turned against President Zelenskiy, demanding Kyiv stop striking Russian oil refineries and urging Ukrainians to replace him.
• Musk, SpaceX, and the White House did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment; Trump said Friday that neither he nor Musk was responsible for Ukraine losing Starlink access to a degree that affected military operations, while Musk has previously said use of the military Starshield version ultimately rests with Trump as US president.

This summary is our own processing of the source article; see the source link below for full context.