Trump called Musk on Wednesday and asked him to lift the limits on Ukraine's Starlink. Musk left them on.
The New York Times and Wall Street Journal both reported the call. On Thursday Trump told reporters he would not say whether he phoned, "or whether somebody else called, it doesn't make a difference," and then said what the call was for: "The bottom line, he put it back." A week earlier he had said it "wasn't me" and he didn't "think it was Elon."
Kyiv says he put nothing back. "Overall, nothing has changed anywhere," a Ukrainian official told the Kyiv Independent on Wednesday night. The cap SpaceX dropped on Ukraine's military terminals on Oct. 14 still holds at 161 km/h, about 100 mph. The interceptor drones Ukraine flies at Russian Shaheds go faster than that. Narativ reported Oct. 21 that Musk gave the order.
That was Wednesday night. By Friday morning nothing had moved. "Overall, there's no change anywhere," a senior Ukrainian official told the Kyiv Independent, and a Ukrainian intelligence official put it shorter: "Starshield still doesn't work." Trump, leaving the White House on Friday, said he had not spoken to Musk about it and would if he had to. "If there's a problem, I will get it straightened out."
Here is the machine. SpaceX owns the satellites. The Pentagon pays for Ukraine's military version, Starshield. Musk says the Pentagon and "ultimately POTUS" set the speed. Hegseth says the terms of service set it. The president says he asked. The switch stayed where Musk put it.
