Well before the throttling this month of Ukraine’s military access to Elon Musk’s satellite communications system, the Biden and Trump administrations had several times asked SpaceX to turn its Starlink service on or off in various countries, according to six former senior US officials familiar with the matter.
During the presidency of Joe Biden, the requests included switching off the service to prevent Iranian proxy militias in Yemen and Lebanon from using Starlink to communicate, and activating the service to provide internet access inside Iran and in Ukraine to support its military, said four of the former officials.
Similarly, President Donald Trump’s administration asked Musk, who is CEO of SpaceX, to make the service available in Iran following US-Israeli strikes in 2025 and 2026, in hopes it would bolster internet access and communications for anti-government protesters, a former senior Trump official and a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
All of the people spoke on condition of anonymity. The previous US requests about Starlink access are being reported here for the first time.
The recent blowup over restrictions to Ukraine’s use of SpaceX satellite services has raised questions about the ties between the US government and Musk, whose company owns systems vital to the US military and to US allies.
The Biden-era and Trump requests to Musk show a close relationship in which US administrations rely to an unprecedented degree on a private-sector company to help implement foreign policy.
The recent limits on Ukraine, despite being a US ally, have also rattled officials in Europe, some of whom argue that Europe must develop its own military satellite communications capabilities because no viable short-term alternative currently exists.
STARSHIELD RESTRICTIONS HOBBLE UKRAINE MILITARY
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last week that his country’s access to Starshield, the military version of the Starlink system, had been intentionally limited, interfering with the performance of the country’s military drones. He also said the speeds were reduced for Starlink, which Ukraine uses for some military activities including defense against Russian missile attacks.
Reuters has reported that the order to throttle Starshield came from inside the White House. The Trump administration has acknowledged the slowdown but has not said whether it gave the order.
The White House, contacted for comment, referred Reuters to Trump’s remarks on Friday, when he said he had not spoken with Musk about Starlink access issues for Ukraine and that “if there is a problem, I’ll get it straightened out.”
Halyna Yusypiuk, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian embassy in Washington, said Ukraine’s priority is “to have the service restored to normal speed as soon as possible, as the lives of our people depend on it.”
SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment, although Musk said in a social media post earlier this week: “Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately (by the president of the United States).”
Democratic US Representative Jason Crow called on Friday for clarity about the recent changes to Ukraine’s satellite service, saying there are risks to the US dependence on SpaceX.
“Unelected billionaires and private corporations should not decide what is in the best interest of America’s national security,” Crow said.
For Ukraine, the Starlink internet service has become the lifeblood of frontline communication between units, who say there is currently no rival to the capabilities of SpaceX’s products.
Starshield receivers, largely impervious to radio jamming, are used as onboard guidance systems and to provide links to a remote pilot for Ukrainian drones, including deep behind Russian lines inside Ukraine.
MUSK’S INFLUENCE RAISES UNCERTAINTY
Musk’s role as the strong-willed CEO of a company with outsized influence over US national security has at times raised questions over who is making decisions about SpaceX’s satellite services.
The SpaceX CEO is “supposed to be a business executive, with government contracts, and he’s essentially making huge foreign policy decisions,” said Armand Musey, president of Summit Ridge Group, a satellite industry consultancy.
“He’s sufficiently ambiguous of a person that you don’t know if his decisions are sort of his personal quirks, or it’s because there’s an influence elsewhere that’s impacting him,” Musey said.
In previous years, Musk has moved to limit Ukraine’s access to Starlink. In 2022, according to Reuters reporting, Musk ordered SpaceX personnel to cut Starlink coverage in areas Ukraine was trying to retake, a move that surprised White House officials.
Musk has said publicly that he refused a 2022 Ukrainian request to activate his satellite network in Crimea’s port city of Sevastopol to aid an attack on Russia’s fleet there, saying he feared complicity in a major act of war.
The Biden administration at times relied on Musk to help implement policy, five of the former officials said.
Biden officials coordinated with SpaceX to thwart US adversaries by cutting the service, and to help allies by expanding Starlink’s availability, they said.
They added that discussions between the government and SpaceX, which usually included Pentagon and White House officials, often focused on preventing groups such as the Iranian-linked Houthis in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon from using Starlink terminals.
Biden officials several times shared intelligence with SpaceX that indicated that the Houthis and Hezbollah were using diverted Starlink terminals — hardware that made its way to the militants through intermediaries.
In October 2023, during fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon, intelligence officials told the White House that individuals linked to Hezbollah could have gained access to Starlink terminals. Officials had similar concerns about the Houthis in Yemen in 2024 during a US air campaign against the Iran-linked group, five of the officials said.
