Musk deliberately ordered slowdown of Ukraine’s Starlink network; kept Trump and Zelenskyy in dark: Report
While SpaceX founder Elon Musk pushes to bring the Starlink services to India, his company has come under scanner over a report that he had ordered restrictions on Starshield, a low-Earth-orbit and military-grade satellite communication systems that is used by Ukraine, and even kept Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the dark.
According to a report by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Wednesday, Musk had intentionally called for a slowdown, significantly restricting Ukraine’s air defence and drone operations against the Russians. Citing sources and officials, the report said the move completely took even Trump by surprise and triggered an alarm in Ukraine.
Later, Trump also held a call with Musk over the matter; although he had later declined that the billionaire was not responsible for Ukraine losing the Starlink access that affected its military operations.
Hegseth, Rubio refute report
On the contrary, US officials have denied the Wall Street Journal report that claimed Musk deliberately ordered the slow down of Starlink services. War Secretary Pete Hegseth clarified Washington’s position and said the US military has not instructed any changes to the satellite service.
“We haven’t pulled anything back,” Hegseth said, “nothing’s changed from our view. We haven’t made any directives or anything like that. And we wish the Ukrainians obviously success.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is in India for a three-day visit, also denied the report, while underling that the White House has no control over Starlink services as it is a “commercial product”.
“Starshield is a defence and military product; that is something that the United States military uses. It is not available to Ukraine, and it is under discussion how they want to use it. I don’t know if Zelenskyy knows what he is talking about. In the United States, nobody ordered that Starlink’s speed be slowed down. In my understanding, it has been restored. That is Starlink; they were using Starlink. Starshield is in contract with the US military, has nothing to do with Ukraine,” he said.
The widening differences between US, Ukraine
The report comes amid the growing differences between the United States and Ukraine over the latter’s war with Russia. Trump has repeatedly targeted Zelenskyy for failing to take necessary steps in ensuring that the conflict, which began in February 2022, ends and stressed that Ukraine needs a new president.
This has irked Zelenskyy, who has targeted Trump over the recent Russia-US oil deal and called it an investment in war. But Trump maintains that the onus is on Zelenskyy to ensure that the conflict concludes at the earliest.
“Look, we have given tremendous amounts to Ukraine. We’ve got nothing back other than high diesel… We have given probably more money to Ukraine than almost anybody over the years, hundreds of billions of dollars. We got nothing back. And the American taxpayers are tired of it,” Trump said on Tuesday.
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