Zelensky: Starlink Restriction Order Came From US Government
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the signal to restrict Starlink and Starshield for Ukraine came from the US government. He spoke on 18 October on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” according to European Pravda.
“A message from the government”
“The message came from the government. I do not know from whom exactly. It was a message from the American government about restricting this speed, and technically it was done by the company SpaceX,” Zelensky said. Asked whether the system has been fully restored, he answered: “No. Of course not. We have restrictions. The maximum speed is 161 km/h.”
Background
On 16 October US President Donald Trump said the White House had not been involved in restricting Ukraine’s use of the system. The Telegraph reported that SpaceX chief Elon Musk had proposed to Trump to limit the bandwidth of the Starlink and Starshield networks used by the Ukrainian military. On 17 October Zelensky told journalists that Ukrainian troops had tested Starlink in vehicles in EU countries and found no restrictions there, which he said points to a planned operation against Ukraine. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, for his part, said the Trump administration “has nothing to do” with the restriction of Starlink in Ukraine.