Trump denies ordering Starshield restrictions on Ukraine as Kyiv’s forces reclaim territory in Donetsk

President Donald Trump on Friday denied ordering restrictions on Starshield services for Ukraine, deflecting responsibility for speed caps that hobbled Kyiv’s defenses during a wave of Russian aerial attacks. “It wasn’t me and I don’t think it was Elon,” Trump told reporters, referring to SpaceX owner Elon Musk.

It lands at an extremely low point in relations between Kyiv and Washington. On Tuesday night, Starshield restricted speed limits to 160 km/h, cutting connectivity for weapons traveling faster than that speed. Ukrainian officials said the curbs coincided with a massive Russian bombardment. Even so, Ukraine’s counter-offensive in Donetsk has pressed forward. Operation Vivaldi has liberated approximately 275 to 277 sq km and 16 settlements in the Donbas, according to Ukrainian commanders and Corps commander Andrii Biletskyi.

Starshield is the military-grade version of Starlink, owned by SpaceX and designed for the Pentagon. Ukraine said the restrictions were imposed without warning, limiting its defensive capability at a critical moment. Serhii Beskrestnov, an advisor to President Volodymyr Zelensky, said the armed forces paid a direct price. “Our armed forces did not receive a warning about these restrictions, and this led to the failure of a number of missions,” he wrote on Telegram. Over a 24-hour period, Russia launched 850 drones and 39 missiles, striking 30 energy targets across 19 regions of Ukraine. Some 600,000 people in Ukraine were left without power as communications and energy facilities used by the military were hit in the deadly attacks.

Who ordered the curbs

Reuters reported that the order came from inside the White House, citing US officials. Musk pinned responsibility on the government. “Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS,” he wrote on X. Trump, asked about Starshield, said he was “not sure” it “ever came down.” The Telegraph reported that Musk approached Trump with the idea of slowing down Starlink in Ukraine. A bipartisan group of US senators signed a letter demanding an investigation into the network disruptions, saying the restrictions degraded Ukraine’s ability to conduct defensive operations against Russian drone and missile attacks on civilian infrastructure. Poland’s deputy prime minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, criticized Musk on X, noting that Poland has purchased Starlink services for Ukraine. SpaceX shares are down about 11 percent this week, with quarterly results scheduled for Tuesday.

Ground gains in Donetsk

Operation Vivaldi was designed to blunt a Russian pincer movement threatening what Ukraine described as the “fortress cities” of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. The Institute for the Study of War reported that pro-Russian military bloggers had acknowledged the Ukrainian advances and expressed fears of further losses. Russian attacks in the Sloviansk direction fell from 14 per day in August to three in October, and from three per day in August to 0.3 in October in the Kramatorsk direction. Kyiv says it inflicted 8,000 Russian casualties in Vivaldi alone, and close to 50,000 along the front in September. Some 250 Russians surrendered during the operation. Russian casualties increased 25 percent in the first two weeks of October compared with September, and by almost 60 percent compared with August, according to Robert Brovdi, commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces of Ukraine. Russia’s overall gains this year were brought close to nil by the operation.

In Karpivka, a village occupied since April, Ukrainian forces found one resident remaining. The 61-year-old Volodymyr Zamota said he survived for eight months in total isolation, the last man standing when his neighbors fled the Russian advance. “I’m the only person left in the whole village, and the village has been almost completely destroyed,” he said. Andriy Hitt, Revenge Brigade chief of staff, said the gains carry strategic value. “The real value of this is securing advantageous positions, favourable lines, and a bridgehead that grants us a superior position,” he said. Commandant Phoenix of the Revenge Brigade’s Silver Trinity unit described the preparation. “The men trained for months. We had to completely restructure our approach because previously we had been defending, and now we had to go on the offensive,” he said.

Diplomatic rupture

The Starshield dispute is one thread in a broader fraying of ties. Trump said Zelensky was more difficult to deal with than Russian President Vladimir Putin, even as he told reporters on Friday that he had a good relationship with his Ukrainian counterpart. Zelensky expressed feeling betrayed by Trump. “It’s painful when President Trump chooses one side, not our side,” he said. “This is not the right side of history.” Trump declared an energy ceasefire on October 11. Russia continued its bombardment. On October 9, Trump invited Russia to sell 1.8 million tonnes of diesel to the global market by year’s end, effectively reversing the Lindsey Graham Act he had signed into law days earlier. The intelligence picture darkened as well. Ukraine’s partners did not share intelligence about five ballistic missiles headed toward Kyiv on October 13, and those missiles struck Thermal Power Plant number 4, causing power outages. Ukraine resumed striking Russian oil refineries after the restrictions and diplomatic tensions, ignoring Trump’s call for a halt.