Weakening Ukraine’s defenses while Russia batters its cities is a disgraceful way for the Trump administration to pursue peace. You can almost feel the glee emanating from the Kremlin.
The origin of the restrictions on Ukraine’s satellite communications remains murky, but the reality of the disruptions is not. Connectivity has improved in recent days, but limits remain in place. Ukrainian drones risk falling out of the sky if they travel faster than 100 mph.
The throttling came in recent days as President Donald Trump pressured Ukraine to stop attacking Russia’s oil infrastructure, but the restrictions didn’t directly limit Ukraine’s ability to conduct the deep strikes Trump objects to.
Starshield, SpaceX’s military-grade version of its commercial Starlink service, does not operate inside Russia, and the drones targeting Russian refineries use other communications systems. Instead, the restrictions disrupted missions against Russian military positions and supply lines inside Ukraine’s territory. Worse, they hobbled interceptor drones protecting Ukrainian population centers.
Without warning, the Ukrainian military began experiencing serious disruptions to Starshield. Reuters reported that the order to limit access came from inside the White House, citing two U.S. officials and another official in the West. The Telegraph reported that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk first proposed the restrictions to Trump, and he agreed to them. But Trump denied responsibility. “It wasn’t me, and I don’t think it was Elon,” the president told reporters on Friday. “I don’t know if it was anybody.”
Somebody gave the order, and Ukrainian civilians paid the price. An overnight barrage on Tuesday, into Wednesday, left at least 600,000 people without electricity. All three of the combined heat and power plants in the capital of Kyiv came under attack, and water supplies were disrupted in parts of the city.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said early in the week that he would abide by Trump’s wishes and halt attacks against Russian oil infrastructure, provided Moscow reciprocated. By Thursday, after Russia hammered his power plants, Zelensky announced that Ukraine would no longer hold back. It’s hard to fault him. Ukraine should not be forced to choose between defending its citizens and placating an American president who demands restraint from the country being bombed while failing to extract anything from the aggressor.
To the contrary, Trump is rewarding Russia with sanctions relief and letting its diesel back onto the global market. Late Friday, the president signed an executive order to stop sanctions passed by Congress— and signed by Trump last month — from taking effect on Russian exports and leaders. He cited unspecified “national interests.”
A bipartisan group of nine senators has called for an investigation by the Pentagon’s inspector general into other apparent disruptions to intelligence sharing and early-warning capabilities in Ukraine. They say U.S. diplomatic, military and security personnel were unable to reach designated shelters during Russian air raids and want to know if that’s connected to the limits on Starshield. The American people deserve answers about who ordered the restrictions, why they were imposed and whether Americans’ lives were endangered.
Beyond the immediate ugliness of this episode, there’s also the strategic myopia of throttling Starshield to consider. Europe was already seeking to expedite approval of a satellite manufacturing venture intended to challenge SpaceX. Those efforts will no doubt accelerate. The White House could hardly have supplied a better argument for friendly governments to prioritize standing up competitors to U.S. firms.
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