Oct 20 (Reuters) – Elon Musk last week ordered the slowdown of a military-grade version of Starlink that Ukraine relies on, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing US officials and people familiar with the matter.
Musk, SpaceX and the White House did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
The restriction on Starlink hampered Ukraine’s attack and air defense drone missions against Russia.
Musk and US President Donald Trump discussed the Starlink decision in a call soon after the slowdown became public, while the president was campaigning last week, the report said.
The two also discussed the matter prior to the decision to throttle Starlink, the Journal reported.
Trump turned on Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy after lifting sanctions on Russian diesel to ease pressure on fuel prices that have soared since the US-Israeli war with Iran began in February. He told Kyiv to stop attacking Russian refineries and urged Ukrainians to replace Zelenskiy.
Trump said on Friday he did not think either he or Musk was responsible for Ukraine losing Starlink access in a way that affected its military operations against Russia.
Musk earlier said use of Starlink’s military version, known as Starshield, was ultimately up to Trump as US president.
(Reporting by Anusha Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)
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