Musk approached Trump to slow down Starlink in Ukraine

Donald Trump stated he had not ordered any restrictions on Starshield, the military version of Starlink, in Ukraine. When asked if he believed Elon Musk was involved, Trump replied, "Well, I don’t know if it was anybody, because it wasn’t me. And I don’t think it was Elon [Musk]." He confirmed he had checked the morning of October 14 and everything appeared to be functioning as normal.

Trump expressed uncertainty about whether or not Starlink had ceased working in Ukraine. On that same day, Ukrainian military officials reported issues with their Starlink satellite communications terminals, specifically for the military version, Starshield. These restrictions led to some Ukrainian military missions failing. Later that day, a senior U.S. administration official confirmed to Axios that the White House had no involvement in the Starlink restrictions in Ukraine.

However, Reuters sources suggested that the White House had indeed ordered the restrictions, though they did not specify who had given the order. Meduza, the outlet reporting this story, is dedicated to maintaining transparency about its use of AI in journalism. The article was written by a human journalist and translated from Russian with AI assistance, following strict editorial standards.

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